As the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming and climate change solidifies, the effects are happening all around the world. Here are ten of the many signs of global warming, why they happen, and what they do.
According to the IPCC climatologists, the average temperature is expected to rise up to 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit in this century. That means that heat waves during the summer will become more severe and will occur with higher frequency. This, in turn, can cause deaths. A good example of this is the 2002 European heat wave that killed 20,000 people.
9. Sea Levels Rising
The sea level is expected to rise by several feet around the world. This will devastate many coastal regions, especially those without adaptive infrastructure in place. Venice already faces this dilemma. Sea levels are rising because ice sheets and glaciers are melting because of higher temperatures. This melted water runs into the seas.
8. Flooding
One of the signs of global warming is an intensification of weather extremes all around the world. This seems to be the case with many of the large floods today, like the ones in the US Midwest and China. As sea temperatures continue to rise, more intense hurricanes and tropical storms develop more often, which threatens many coastal regions with flooding.
7. Melting glaciers
Glaciers like the ones in the Himalayas are melting as a result of higher average temperatures. This is releasing fresh water, which contributes to flooding but also disrupts the availability of drinking water for many people around the world.
6. Seasons will Change
Another of the signs of global warming are the different times when spring and fall arrives. Spring has been coming 10.8 days earlier on average than the spring of 1959 did. On the other end of the spectrum, fall and winter have, on average, been coming later and later each year. For instance, rivers and lakes in the Northern hemisphere now freeze 8.7 days later than they did in 1840.
5. Insurance Costs Will Rise
It is estimated that climate change will disrupt human civilization immensely. This will increase insurance costs in many areas because of floods, droughts, crop failures, and more intense storms. This is just one example of the economic costs of global warming.
4. An Increase in Droughts
According to the World Meteorological Association, the 1990s were the hottest decade in a millennium. The 2000s were even hotter. This, combined with the overuse of aquifers, is drying out the land, causing crop failures, and injuring and even killing people.
3. More Ozone and Pollution
Here is one more of the signs of global warming that harms humans directly. Hotter air means more ozone and pollution at ground level, which, when breathed in, can cause respiratory sickness in people and animals. In Texas, elevated ozone levels are causing this to happen.
2. Disease and Pests
Diseases and pests like mosquitoes, which carry diseases like West Nile, proliferate in a warmer climate. As the earth's temperatures increase, diseases like West Nile, which were primarily tropical, are spreading North. Also, since winters are important to the control of insect populations, shorter winters allows insects to breed more, which causes problems.
1. Species Extinction
The rate at which species go extinct is high and accelerating. Climate change is making it worse. This is because it disrupts local ecosystems, which, disrupts the ecological balance that species are adapted to. The journal "Nature" has reported that at least hundreds of species could become extinct due to global warming.