INTRODUCTION TO EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Projected climate changes due to global warming have the potential to lead to future large-scale and possibly irreversible changes in our climate resulting in impacts at continental and global scales. Examples of projected climate changes include:

• Significant slowing of the ocean circulation that transports warm water to the North Atlantic
• Large reductions in the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice Sheets
• Accelerated global warming due to carbon cycle feedbacks in the terrestrial biosphere
• Releases of terrestrial carbon from permafrost regions and methane from hydrates in coastal sediments.

The likelihood of many of these changes is uncertain. However, the probability of one or more of these changes occurring is likely to increase with the rate, magnitude, and duration of climate change.

negative aspects of climate change

Many of the negative effects of climate change are already experienced today. There is considerable debate over the increase in these effects in the future. Some of the negative aspects of climate change are:

• More extreme weather
• Destabilization of local climates
• Sea level rise
• Acidification of the oceans
• Damaged ecosystems and loss of species
• Drop in ecological productivity
• Economic costs
• Decline of agriculture.

Possible benefits of GLOBAL WARMING

The effects of global warming are not uniformly negative. Global warming will lead to climate change which will have positive benefits in some regions and negative effects in others. Scientists are unable to accurately predict when various effects of global warming will occur or what the magnitude of the effect will be.

For this reason, it is not possible to be certain whether the positive benefits will outweigh the negative impacts. What is known is that some significant negative impacts are projected: these drive most of the concern about global warming, and motivate attempts to reduce or adapt to the effects of global warming.

THREE PHYSICAL CHANGES ASSOCIATED WITH GLOBAL WARMING

Most of the consequences of global warming would result from one of three physical changes:

• sea level rise

• higher local temperatures

• changes in rainfall patterns.

Sea level is generally expected to rise 50-200 cm in the next century (Dean et al. 1987); such a rise would inundate 7,000 square miles of dry land in the United States and a similar amount of coastal wetlands; erode recreational beaches 100-200 meters, exacerbate coastal flooding; and increase the salinity of aquifers and estuaries. This will also lead to the disappearance of many low-lying islands currently occupied by humans.

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This information is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation. It is derivative of articles Climate Change, Global Warming and related environmental issues at http://en.wikipedia.org