| |
Evidences of Extreme Weather Changes
Precipitation and Atmospheric Moisture Change
Climate Variability and Climate Change
Climate Variability and Global Warming
Evidences of Climate Variability
Impacts of Climate Change
Policies on Climate Change
Stand of United Nations on Climate Change
What is climate Variability?
How has the climate of the earth changed over time?
What is the evidence for climate variability?
Is there such a thing as global warming?
Why do scientists think there is global warming?
What will happen if global warming continues?
What is the hottest it has ever been on earth?
What is the coldest it has ever been on earth?
Can we stop global warming?
Ice Core Data
Tree Ring Data
Geological Data
Sea Core Data
Satellite Data
Other Data
Geologic Times and Dates
Climate Variability Pics
|
Climate change is a serious issue concerning both the environment and human life. To date, evidences of climate change include rising sea levels, decreased snow cover over the Northern Hemisphere and instrumental temperate records. With these, there are even predictions that future climate changes would mean further global warming, sea level rising and increasing frequency of extreme weather events.
As the ecosystem becomes vulnerable to climate change, a lot of countries have begun to implement policies that aim to reduce the risk of huge changes in our future climate. Most of these policies aim to reduce a country’s emission of greenhouse gas.
One of the physical impacts of climate change deals with weather effects. The increase in temperature often leads to an increase in precipitation even if its effects on storms are still yet to be determined. For extratropical storms, they partly depend on temperature gradients, which can weaken the northern hemisphere. This is with the polar region warming more as compared to the other hemispheres.
It is global warming that is responsible for trends in natural disasters like in extreme weather. At current, there have been indicated predictions by the IPCC – mostly over land areas like an increase in heat waves and more frequent warm spells. With this, it is more likely that increased areas will experience drought, there will be an increase in intense tropical cyclone activity and there’ll be an increase in extreme high sea level incidences.
Another physical impact deals with increased evaporation. In the span of 20 centuries, the rate of evaporation continues to reduce. Many refer to this as “global dimming”. As our climate becomes warmer and global dimming is reduced, evaporation is noted to increase because of warmer oceans. Since our world is a closed system, this in turn, will result to heavier rainfall and more erosion. This, in vulnerable tropical areas like Africa, can lead to “desertification”. As for other areas, the increased rainfall will result to the growth of forests, especially in dry desert areas.
Another impact we should expect is glacier retreat and disappearance. As the climate warms up, glaciers would soon retreat and threaten the existence of most of the world’s glaciers. There have been reports of this in the Alps, Andes, Himalayas, Pyrenes, North Cascades and Rocky Mountains.
As the loss of glaciers continue, it can directly cause flash floods, landslides, glacial lake overflow, and above all – an increase in the annual variation of water flowing from rivers. Contrary to what others may think as an increase in the supply of water, in the long run, the most populated regions on Earth will most likely run out of water
|
|
|
