What is Global Warming Awareness?

Global warming is a natural phenomenon. Because people burn fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, etc., or deforest and burn them, they produce a large amount of carbon dioxide, which is a greenhouse gas. These greenhouse gases are highly transparent to visible light from solar radiation and emitted to the earth. The long-wave radiation is highly absorptive, and can strongly absorb infrared rays in the ground radiation, causing the temperature of the earth to rise, that is, the greenhouse effect. When the greenhouse effect continues to accumulate, the energy absorbed and emitted by the geogas system is unbalanced, and energy is continuously accumulated in the geogas system, which causes the temperature to rise and causes global warming. Global warming will cause global redistribution of precipitation, melting of glaciers and permafrost, and rising sea levels, which will not only endanger the balance of natural ecosystems, but also threaten human survival.

Global warming effect

Right!

Chinese name: Global warming effect

Foreign name: Effects of Global Warming

The predicted global warming effect has a profound impact on the environment and human life. It is mainly manifested by the increase in global average temperature and triggers a series of secondary effects, such as sea level rise, changes in agricultural distribution, increase in severe weather, and the spread of tropical disease epidemics. This effect has been observed in some cases, although it is currently difficult to attribute these specific phenomena to global warming.

The magnitude of these effects and their possibilities have become a global political issue, and the details remain uncertain scientific questions. For a summary of possible effects and current levels of cognition, see the report of the IPCC Working Group II, and for climate change predictions see the Working Group 1. A new IPCC summary report will be published in the first quarter of 2007.

Researchers say that as the world's population grows, previous carbon dioxide emissions from industrial societies mainly came from deforestation, and these emissions account for 9% of the global warming effect. ^[1]

Since the end of the 19th century, global temperatures have increased by about 1.33 degrees Fahrenheit (0.74 degrees Celsius). According to a report published this month in the Environmental Research Newsletter by Pengratz and Kadela, about 9% of the global warming effect is caused by emissions during the pre-industrial revolution. ^[1]

Global warming effect

meteorological

Rising temperatures may lead to increased precipitation [3] [4], but the effect on storms is less obvious. The formation of tropical storms depends partly on the temperature "gradient", which may be weakened by the warming of the polar regions of the northern hemisphere being higher than other parts [5].

Choi and Fisher predicted in Climate Change, Volume 58 (2003), p. 149, that every 1% increase in annual rainfall increases the damage caused by catastrophic storms 2.8%.

Extreme weather

The third annual assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate Change 2001, states that "there is no strong evidence to suggest that the characteristics of tropical and temperate storms have changed." Limited evidence indicates that the severity of storms is increasing, such as Emanuel's 2005 Energy Consumption Index, which measures hurricane density. Worldwide, the proportion of hurricanes reaching a magnitude of four or five-representing wind speeds greater than 56 meters per second-rose from 20% in the 1970s to 35% in the 1990s [. Precipitation brought to the United States by the hurricane increased by seven percentage points in the twentieth century.

The high risk of persistent severe weather does not mean that there are far more severe weather than normal weather days. On the contrary, there is evidence that both severe weather and moderate precipitation days have increased.

Stephen Mwakifwamba, coordinator of the National Center for Energy, Environment and Technology, wrote the climate change report submitted by the Tanzanian government to the United Nations. He said that climate change in Tanzania is happening. "In the past, we only experienced a drought every ten years. Now we don't know when it will happen. They happen too frequently, and they are followed by floods. The climate is becoming more and more difficult to predict. We may have floods in May or a drought in three years. In the past, there were no mosquitoes in the hills and highlands. Now there are. Groundwater levels are falling every day, and it is raining for farmers. It's not always the right time, and this has caused a lot of other problems "[10].

Evaporation in Boulder, Colorado

As the climate gets warmer, the amount of evaporation will increase. This could lead to more precipitation and erosion, and in more fragile tropical regions, especially Africa, could exacerbate desertification caused by deforestation. Many scientists believe that the development of global warming may lead to more extreme weather. The IPCC's third annual report states: "... in the 21st century, global average water vapor concentrations and precipitation are expected to increase. By the second half of the 21st century, the mid-high latitudes of the northern hemisphere and winter precipitation in Antarctica are likely to increase "At low latitudes, there will be regional increases in precipitation, but it will decrease in land areas. In most areas, the year-to-year change in precipitation is likely to increase and mean precipitation will increase."

The damage caused by extreme weather is growing rapidly. The Association of British Insurers (ABI) says limiting carbon emissions will help reduce annual losses from projected increases in tropical cyclones by 80% by 2080. Such losses may also be exacerbated by construction in high-hazard areas such as the coast and alluvial plains. The ABI also claims that for the impact of unavoidable climate change, if necessary measures can be taken to strengthen weak links, such as building stronger and more durable buildings and improving flood protection facilities, it will save costs in the long term.

Changing regional climate balance

The area of glaciers in the world has been reduced by 50% since the nineteenth century. The rate of disappearance of glaciers in the Andes, Alps, Himalayas and Rockies is rapidly increasing. In March 2005, the ice cap on the top of Kilimanjaro almost disappeared. It has been in existence for more than 11,000 years since the last Ice Age. The loss of glaciers not only directly caused landslides, flash floods, and spills of glacial lakes, but also increased the fluctuation of annual flow in rivers. The increasing melting of glaciers has made glaciers smaller in summer, a phenomenon that can be observed in many areas. Glaciers can retain this water in high precipitation years, because snow cover on the glacier can protect the ice from melting into water; in warm or dry years, the glacier will melt to release excess water to make up for the lack of precipitation Therefore, glaciers are regulators of river water volume.

In the northern hemisphere, the southern part of the Arctic Ocean, where about 4 million people live, has risen by 1 to 3 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years. Some permafrost zones in Canada, Alaska, and Russia have begun to melt, which may damage the region's ecosystems. Increased bacterial activity in the soil will cause the area to change from carbon sinks to carbon. Release source [19]. A study of Eastern Siberia (published in Science) showed that its south is gradually melting, leading to the death of nearly 11,000 lakes, or 11%, in 1971 [20]. At the same time, Western Siberia is in the early stages of melting in its permafrost, a process that is creating new lakes, and at the same time a large amount of methane, an additional greenhouse gas, may be released into the atmosphere.

The hurricane was once considered to be a pure North Atlantic phenomenon. In April 2004, the first hurricane formed in the Atlantic Ocean in the southern hemisphere and hit Brazil at a wind speed of 144 km / h; the scope of surveillance may therefore need to be extended south 1600 kilometers.

ocean

The ocean is an important part of the climate system. Because of its huge volume and large specific heat, the ocean's response to environmental changes is slower, but at the same time more profound.

Sea-level rise

As global temperatures rise, the volume of ocean water will expand. At the same time, melting glaciers on land and polar ice caps will also inject large amounts of liquid water. If the temperature increases by 1.5 to 4.5 ° C, sea level will rise by 15 to 95 cm (IPCC 2001).

Since the last glacial peak 18,000 years ago, sea levels have risen by more than 120 meters. 6000 years ago, the capacity of today's seawater has been reached, and from 3000 years ago to the beginning of the 19th century, sea level has remained basically constant, rising by about 0.1 to 0.2 mm per year; and since 1900, this rate has risen to 12 mm / year [23]; The satellite elevation table of TOPEX / Poseidon shows an ascent rate of 3 mm per year since 1992 [24].

Water temperature rise

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the temperature of the Southern Ocean around the Antarctic increased by 0.17 ° C, almost twice as fast as the world's ocean averages [25]. Rising water temperatures affect ecosystems (eg, melting sea ice affects algae growing on its bottom), while reducing the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide.

acidification

The oceans on Earth absorb carbon dioxide released by many life activities. This process is carried out by means of gas dissolution, or it sinks into the ocean floor in the form of skeletons of marine microorganisms and becomes chalk or limestone. At present, the ocean absorbs approximately one ton of CO2 per person per year, and it is estimated that since 1800, the ocean has absorbed almost half of the CO2 released by human activities (that is, 120 billion tons of carbon) [26].

But in water, carbon dioxide turns into carbonic acid, a weak acid. Greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution have reduced the average pH of seawater by 0.1 to 8.2. It is predicted that further emissions could be reduced by another 0.5 by 2100, a value never reached in millions of years. [27]

Some people have observed fatal effects of seawater acidification on corals (16% of reef corals in the world have died of bleach since 1998) and marine life with calcium carbonate shells. The increase in acidity can also directly affect the growth and reproduction of fish and the plankton that they depend on.

Termination of the hot salt cycle?

Illustration of North Atlantic Ocean Water Flow

There is a theory that global warming may result in local cooling in the North Atlantic by closing or slowing down the hot-salt cycle of the oceans, causing the local average temperature to drop, or to warm up less. It affects both Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, as they are both warmed by the North Atlantic Warm. The possibility of this change is still uncertain, and there is some evidence of signs of weakening in the Gulf Stream and the North Atlantic Warm Current. However, there are still no signs of a cooling trend in the waters in or near northern Europe, and the opposite is true.

Most of the heat in the tropics is transmitted to the poles through the atmosphere, but it can also be transported by ocean currents, where hot water flows near the surface and cold water flows deep. A typical example of this cycle is the Gulf Stream, a wind-driven circulation that carries hot water from the Caribbean to the north. A northerly branch of the Gulf Stream, the North Atlantic Warm Current is part of the heat-salt cycle, bringing heat further north to the North Atlantic, where it heats the entire Northwestern Europe. The evaporation of the North Atlantic waters and the drop in water temperature also cause an increase in salinity (relative salinity), which increases the surface water density. At the same time, the formation of sea ice has further concentrated the salt in seawater. As a result, the heavier surface seawater settles down while sneaking southward. Global warming may cause, for example, the melting of the Greenland ice sheet, increased precipitation, and especially the increase in the Siberian rivers [30], thus increasing the amount of fresh water injected into the northern ocean. However, it is unclear whether the increased amount of fresh water is sufficient to cut off the hot-salt cycle-environmental models have given negative conclusions, but research is continuing.

According to data from the NASA Pathfinder satellite elevation table from May 1992 to June 2002, the arrows indicate the trend of speed changes, and the colors indicate the degree of change. Note that the direction of the red arrow is exactly the opposite of the direction of the current in the picture above, which confirms the slowdown of the cycle. Source: NASA

Some people are even worried that global warming will reproduce a large temperature change that occurred during the last ice age: a series of Dansgaard-Oeschger events. This is a rapid climate change that may result from the cessation of hot-salt exchange caused by increased freshwater flow at high latitudes. Younger Dryas may be the case. However, it is believed that these events were caused by a large amount of fresh water from the Laurentide ice sheet, rather than fresh water from polar melting sea ice or changes in precipitation caused by global warming. In addition, in the coupled atmospheric-ocean cycle model, the heat-salt exchange tends to weaken rather than interrupt, and even in a small area in Europe, the trend of warming must be restrained by the trend of cooling: so the IPCC's third annual report states that In the model of reduced heat-salt exchange, Europe is still on the rise. "

In April 2004, a retrospective analysis of US satellite data appeared to show that the Gulf Stream's northern manoeuvre and the weakening of the North Atlantic Circulation have strongly supported the hypothesis that the Gulf Stream will be truncated.

In May 2005, Peter Wadham reported to Time magazine the results of a deep-sea survey under the Arctic Ocean ice, a survey designed to measure giant water columns formed by dense cold water They are replaced by warm surface water and sink to the bottom, which constitutes one of the motive forces for the North Atlantic warm current. He and his team found that the water columns had almost disappeared. Under normal circumstances, there should be seven to twelve huge water columns, but he only found two, and they were extremely weak.

Brighton Survey Report at the end of 2005

A New Scientist (NewScientist.com) news agency reported on November 30, 2005 that the National Oceanographic Centre of England found that warm ocean currents northbound from the Gulf Stream were 30% less than the last measurement in 1992. The authors say that the changes observed so far are "awkwardly approaching" the uncertainty range of the measurement. However, the North Atlantic is hotter than the last measurement. This shows that either the cycle has not weakened, or it has no cooling effect as expected in theory, or there are other more overwhelming factors that make cooling impossible.

The "new scientist" article is based on an article (link, registration required) published by Nature L. (438, 655-657) by Harry L. Bryden and others on December 1, 2005. In the same issue of News and Perspectives (438, 565-566, [39]), Detlef Quadrasel reiterated that the results of Brighton and others are highly uncertain. Gao, but he also said that other factors and observations did support their results. Quadracel went on to point out the seriousness of the possible consequences, citing paleoclimatological records that show that events that shifted when the ocean cycle reached a certain threshold have reduced temperatures by as much as 10 ° C over a decade. He concludes that deeper observations and models are key to providing early warning of possible catastrophic termination of the cycle.

On December 6, 2005, a research group led by Mike Schlesinger, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, stated that "the cessation of the hot salt cycle was once considered a high-risk, low-probability event. Our analysis, although still uncertain Composition, showing that it is a high-risk, high-probability event. "[40] This is still a minority opinion based on unpublished research.

On January 19, 2006, a title entitled Climate Change: Changes Originating from the Ocean appeared in the journal Nature (439, 256-260), written by Quirin Schiermeier. Above, the response to the results of Brighton is detailed (link, registration required; see also RealClimate), including the following:

This result was a surprise to scientists working in the field.

The model concludes that the amount of freshwater increase sufficient to terminate the thermal salt cycle is orders of magnitude greater than what is currently expected, and that this increase seems unlikely to reach a critical level in the last few hundred years, which is in contrast to Brighton Measurements are difficult to reconcile.

If their results are correct, the weakening of hot salt exchange may not have the significant effect of the expected cooling in Europe.

Although previous cycles stopped (such as the Younger Fairy Wood incident) caused cooling, the current overall climate is completely different; especially due to the effects of global warming, the formation of sea ice is not as active as before.

However, the disruption of the hot-salt cycle can have other important consequences, such as: increased floods and storms, a crisis of plankton reserves, warming or rainfall changes in the tropics or Alaska and Antarctica.

ecosystem

Rising temperatures have already begun to affect ecosystems. Butterflies in Europe and North America have moved their range 200 kilometers north, and plants have followed, while migration of large animals has been hampered by cities and roads, not so quickly. In the UK, spring butterflies appear an average of six days earlier than twenty years ago. In the Arctic, the icing period in Hudson Bay is three weeks shorter than it was 30 years ago, which is interfering with the survival of polar bears because they cannot prey on land.

Two studies published in Nature (vol 421) in 2002 [43] investigated the scientific community's study of recent changes in regional or seasonal habits of flora and fauna. For species that have recently changed, four-fifths have moved their active areas to poles or high latitudes, and "refugee species" have appeared. Frog spawning, flower opening, and bird migration advance an average of 2.3 days every ten years [44]. A 2005 study concluded that human activities caused the temperature rise and the resulting changes in species habits, and these results were compared with predictions from climate models to support these assertions [45]. Even grass appeared for the first time on the Antarctic continent.

Forests are at risk from potentially increased fires. The 10-year average of burned northern forests in North America has remained stable at around 10,000 square kilometers for decades, and has gradually risen to more than 28,000 square kilometers per year since 1970.

Ecological productivity

Increases in average temperature and carbon dioxide may have an effect on promoting ecosystem productivity at some point. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide is relatively scarce compared to oxygen (0.03% vs. 21%). This scarcity of carbon dioxide is very obvious during photorespiration, because carbon dioxide is very scarce, and oxygen can enter the chloroplasts of plants and occupy the Calvin cycle. Where CO2 should have been. This destroys the carbohydrates that are forming and hinders growth. Satellite data indicate that productivity has increased in the northern hemisphere since 1982 (however, it is difficult to attribute this increase to a specific factor).

The IPCC model predicts that high CO2 concentrations can only promote the growth of plant communities to a certain extent, because water or nutrition is a limiting factor in many areas, not CO2 or temperature; after that, the greenhouse effect and warming will be Continue, but there will be no growth feedback.

A study conducted by the Swiss Canopy Crane Project shows that under high CO2 concentrations, slow-growing tree species can only be promoted in the short term, while long-term beneficiaries are rapids such as vines. Growing plant. In general, especially in rain forests, this means that vines will become the dominant species; and because of the short growth cycle, the carbon they accumulate will soon return to the atmosphere due to the decomposition of rotten branches. In contrast, slow-growing trees can solidify carbon dioxide in the air for decades.

Glacier melting

The North Glacier's Lewis Glacier, one of the five completely melted glaciers in the area.

Historically, glaciers increased during the small ice period from 1550 to 1850; then, until the 1940s, as the climate warmed, glaciers around the world began to recede. However, a slight global cooling occurred worldwide between 1950 and 1980, and in many places the trend of glacial retreat slowed down or reversed. Since 1980, the retreat of glaciers has become faster and more common, and their extent has even threatened the existence of many glaciers. This process has become so significant since 1995 that the Austrian Alps glaciers have been covered with plastic to slow the melting [48]. The receding of mountain glaciers, especially in tropical and subtropical regions of West North America, the Franz Josef Islands, Asia, the Alps, Indonesia, Africa, and South America, has provided continuous numerical records of global temperature rise since the late 19th century . The melting of many glaciers has drawn attention to local water issues in the future. The picture on the right shows the North Glacade (Lewis Glacier, North Cascades), which was taken after melting in 1990. It is one of the 47 North Falls glaciers, and the rest is fading [49].

Although close to human society and having an important impact on the latter, low-latitude mountain glaciers account for only a small portion of global ice reserves. About 99% of the ice is located in the polar and subpolar Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets. These continuous, continental-scale ice layers are 3 kilometers or more thick, covering the polar land. Just like the many rivers that flow from a huge lake, there are many glacier injections that bring ice from the edge of the ice sheet into the ocean.

Regression was also observed in these injected glaciers, leading to an increase in glacial velocity. On Greenland, there have been several receding giant glaciers that have been stable for a long time since 2000. Three glaciers have been studied: Helheim, Jakobshavns, and Kangerdlugssuaq glaciers, which together add up to 16% of Greenland's ice sheet. Satellite images and aerial photographs from the 1950s to the 1970s show that the front end of the glacier has remained in its original position for more than a decade. However, it began to recede rapidly in 2001, with a total of 7.2 km retreat between 2001 and 2005, and the flow velocity increased from 20 m / day to 32 m / day [50]. The Jakobshavn Isbr & aelig; in West Greenland is recognized as the world's fastest-moving glacier. It has continuously flowed at a rate of more than 24 meters per day since at least 1950, while maintaining a stable front end. In 2002, the 12-kilometer-long floating front began to enter a phase of rapid retreat. The front end of the ice surface began to break, and the collapsed floating end accelerated to a receding speed of 30 meters per day. The Kangerlongsac Glacier s receding acceleration is even greater. Part of the trunk flowed at 15 m / day from 1988 to 2001 and reached 40 m / day in the summer of 2005; the front of the glacier also appeared Backed off and quickly thinned more than 100 meters.

Satellite photos show accelerating retreat in Port Jacob Glacier from 01-03

The receding and accelerating glaciers also appeared on the two main glacier glaciers of the Antarctic ice sheet. The Pine Island glaciers injected into the Amundsen Sea thinned 3.5 ± 0.9 m each year and retreated five kilometers within 3.8 years. . The end of the glacier, a floating ice shelf, whose floating end points recede 1.2 kilometers per year. This glacier has discharged a large amount of the Antarctic ice sheet, which is called the soft belly (weak point) of this ice sheet [52]. The same pattern of thinning is also evident in the nearby Thwaites Glacier.

Further warming effects

Some global warming effects can cause further warming and become a positive feedback.

Methane released from permafrost peat bogs

In August 2005, climate scientists reported that about one million square kilometers of permafrost peat bogs in western Siberia began to melt, the first time they have melted since the formation of the most recent ice age 11,000 years ago. This process could release 700 billion tons of methane, an extremely effective greenhouse gas, over the next few decades. Earlier in May 2005, another report suggested that similar melting occurred in Eastern Siberia [53].

When the IPCC released their most recent climate change report in 2001, the scientific community was still unaware of the existence of positive feedback. Therefore, the discovery of peat swamp melting in 2005 may indicate that the warming process is faster than expected in 2001.

Carbon cycle feedback

Existing predictions and evidence suggest that global warming may cause carbon release from terrestrial ecosystems, further increasing atmospheric CO2 content. Some climate models suggest that global warming in the 21st century may be accelerated by this feedback from the carbon cycle [54]. The most severe feedback comes from the increase of soil respiration in high-latitude sub-arid coniferous forests in the northern hemisphere. In particular, a model (HadCM3) has revealed the possibility of secondary carbon cycle feedback caused by the significant reduction of tropical precipitation in South America leading to the disappearance of the Amazon rainforest [55]. Although different models have different opinions on the feedback of the ground carbon cycle, they all confirm the possibility of positive feedback, that is, the acceleration effect on global warming.

A September 2005 article in Nature said that observations of soils in England found that they had lost carbon at a rate of 4 million tons per year for the past 25 years, and authors Bellamy and others called this One result is not like the change in land use. By extrapolating the results across the UK, they estimate that 13 million tons of carbon are lost each year. This is roughly the same as the UK's annual reduction in carbon emissions within the framework of the Kyoto Protocol (12.7 million tons).

Forest fire

Increased global temperatures may lead to more frequent and larger-scale forest fires. They will release carbon reserves far beyond what the natural carbon cycle can absorb, and at the same time reduce the existing forest cover on the earth, forming a Positive feedback. However, another feedback mechanism is the rapid growth of alternative forests and the northward migration of forests due to rising temperatures, as the climate in the north will be more suitable for forest growth. Therefore, it is still a question whether the activity of burning renewable energy such as forests can be a factor of global warming.

economic

In addition to the direct losses caused by extreme weather, global warming has other economic effects.

The decline of agriculture

It has long been hoped that global warming will have a positive effect on agriculture, as carbon dioxide plays an important role in photosynthesis, especially in preventing photorespiration. Photorespiration is responsible for the destruction of several crops. Rising temperatures in Iceland have made possible the widespread cultivation of barley, which was unimaginable two decades ago. Some warming effects are due to local fluctuations (possibly temporary) of ocean currents from the Caribbean, which also affect fish stocks

Although local benefits are foreseeable in some regions (such as in Siberia), recent studies have confirmed that this is a negative impact globally. "Large-scale experiments have shown that rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts, and the side effects of both, such as high concentrations of near-earth ozone gas, will likely bring fundamental, Reduce production. "(The Independent, April 27, 2005," Climate change poses threat to food supply, scientists say "-report on this event)

In addition, the region most likely to suffer is Africa. Not only because of its geographical conditions make it particularly vulnerable, but also because 70% of its population depends on agriculture irrigated by natural precipitation. Tanzania's official report on climate change states that areas that normally have two rainy seasons each year will likely receive more, while those with only one rainy season will receive much less rainfall. The expected net effect would be a 33% reduction in local staple corn production.

Insurance

An industry directly affected by risk is the insurance industry. Since 1960, the number of major natural disasters has tripled, and insured losses have increased fifteen times in real terms (after adjusting for inflation) [60]. According to a study, 35-40% of the worst disasters are related to climate change (ERM, 2002). Over the past three decades, the proportion of the global population affected by climate-related disasters has doubled, from about 2% in 1975 to 4% in 2001 (ERM, 2002).

The June 2004 report of the British Association of Underwriters declared that "climate change is not a distant problem to be faced in the next generations. It already exists in various forms and affects the business of insurers." It also pointed out that the climate Property risk has increased by 2-4% each year, and claims that storm and flood damage in the UK has doubled to more than 6 billion pounds between 1998 and 2003, compared to the previous five years. The result is a rise in insurance premiums, and flood disaster insurance in some places may not be affordable for some people.

In the United States, insured losses have also increased significantly, but according to one study, this increase was mainly due to the increase in population and property in fragile coastal areas. (Science, 284, 1943-1947)

traffic

As the temperature difference increases, roads, airport runways, train tracks, and pipelines (including oil pipelines, sewage pipes, and fresh water pipes) will be more easily damaged, requiring more frequent maintenance and replacement. Subsidence is more likely to occur in areas containing permafrost.

flood

Because in the past it facilitated maritime trade, many of today's metropolises are located along the coast. As global warming raises seawater levels, these cities may have to invest significant resources in coastal defense. The risks vary from country to country, and low-lying countries such as Bangladesh and the Netherlands bear the brunt, or may have to pay huge resources to prevent flooding.

In developing countries, because the Pan-Fu Plain is both a fertile farmland and a cheap place to live, the poor often settle in one another. These dwellings on the Panyu Plain often lack infrastructure such as dams and flood warning systems, and residents often lack financial support such as insurance, savings, and loans to help them rebuild their homes after floods.

Immigration

Some Pacific island nations, such as Tuvalu, are facing the possibility of a total evacuation, as resistance to floods may be too expensive for them. Tuvalu has a special agreement with New Zealand on a phased migration.

Some different projections in the 1990s set the total number of environmental refugees at about 25 million (the official definition of refugees is only one who evades persecution, not including environmental migrants). The IPCC predicts that there will be 150 million environmental refugees in 2050, mainly due to coastal floods, riparian erosion and agricultural damage. This figure represents 1.5% of the estimated population of 10 billion in 2050.

Northwest Passage

The melting Arctic ice may open a northwestern channel in summer, reducing the navigation distance between Europe and Asia by 9,000 kilometers. These giant tankers have a huge relationship because they are too large to pass through the Panama Strait, so they can only bypass the southernmost tip of South America. According to the Canadian Ice Service, the total ice volume in the Canadian Arctic archipelago decreased by 15 percentage points between 1969 and 2004.

economic development

The combined effects of global warming will be particularly harmful to countries and people who are unable to mitigate this effect. This will offset economic growth and efforts to eradicate poverty, and make the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals more difficult [66] [67].

In October 2004, the Working Group on Climate Change and Development, a coordinating organization for development and environmental NGOs, published a report on the impact of climate change on development "Up in Smoke ". This report, along with the July 2005 report "Africa-Up in Smoke?" Predicts reduced rainfall and rising hunger and disease caused by severe climate disasters, especially in Africa. They will greatly affect the economic development of relevant people.

surroundings

Indirect evidence of global warmingdecreased snow cover, rising sea levels, climate changeprovides some examples of the consequences of global warming. They show that global warming will not only affect human life, but also have a great impact on ecosystems. Rising global temperatures indicate that ecosystems will change, some species will be forced to leave their habitats and even become extinct, while others may be more prosperous. Only a few terrestrial ecological areas are able to stay away from this impact.

The increased carbon dioxide will increase the productivity of the ecosystem when it reaches a certain level, but the effects of this change are still unknown when considering other aspects of climate change. In addition, a mere increase in biomass is not necessarily a good thing, because even if a small number of species are prosperous, they cannot offset the decrease in biodiversity.

Water shortage

The threat of freshwater pollution from rising global sea levels will affect drinking and irrigation water in coastal areas. Increased evaporation reduces the role of the reservoir. The rise in extreme weather has caused more water to land on the soil that has hardened to absorb them, causing more violent floods without the proper effect of moistening the land or restoring ground water levels. In some areas, retreating glaciers threaten water supplies.

Higher temperature drops require more water to cool down.

In the Sahel region, an average 25% reduction in annual precipitation has been observed over the past 30 years

health

Direct effects of rising temperatures

Rising temperatures have a direct effect on mortality in two opposite directions: higher temperatures in winter will reduce deaths from cold, and higher temperatures in summer will increase heat-induced deaths. The distribution of these changes is clearly differentiated. Palutikof et al. Calculated that a rise in average temperature once reduced deaths in winter more than increases in summer, resulting in an average annual reduction in mortality of 7,000.

A heat wave hit Europe in August 2003, causing 22,00035,000 deaths above normal death rates (Sch & auml; r and Jendritzky, 2004). There is 90% certainty that at least half of the disasters in the European summer of 2003 were due to human activities (Stott et al., 2004).

Other scientists have written that every time the average temperature rises by one degree Celsius, there are 24,000 more kills in the United States each year, because rising body heat makes people more irritable. (New Scientist, 11/5/02, review of Body Heat by Mark Blumberg.)

Spread of disease

Thanks to global warming, vectors of infectious diseases such as malaria can spread more widely [70]. In poor countries, the number of infectious diseases may increase as a result; in rich countries, such infectious diseases may have been eliminated and controlled by means of dredging and spraying insecticides, and national health may not be damaged as a result. However, the cost of epidemic prevention measures may increase greatly, resulting in economic burden [71].

What is Global Warming Awareness?

Global warming effect

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