How Is Global Warming Harmful To Enviroment

Climate plays a major role in the life of individuals and in the formation, development, and death of entire human civilizations. It determines the public welfare, health, epidemiological situation, productivity, economy, the rate and types of construction works, and the state of transport and highways. According to climatic conditions, the physical and financial resources of society are created. These conditions define and develop the spiritual and cultural life of each ethnic group (Schneider 90).

Climate has a direct impact on technical equipment, scientific and economic potential of modern civilization. The role of climate in the speed and directions of changes of the landscape conditions of different natural processes is vital. Therefore, it draws attention of ordinary people, scientists and politicians. The attention to the climate started to appear after the second half of the XX century. A tendency to a fairly significant increase in surface temperature had been detected and in this regard the climate forecasts for the next decade were made (Booker 305).

According to the current forecast estimates, by 2025, the global average temperature of the planet will increase by 1 – 1.5 ° C, and by the end of XXI century, if nothing changes in the climate system, and the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide will continue to increase, it would increase by another 3.5-4 ° C (Archer 76). Where will this lead? Because it will become warmer everywhere in different ways, most minor changes will occur in the equatorial and tropical latitudes. Here modern global warming will only affect the quantity and especially the degree of distribution of precipitation. In turn, this will lead to gradual moisture of deserts of northern and southern arid areas, changing savannah ecosystems to tropical wet forests. In general, all of this will come down not only to a significant reduction of areas of the Sahara desert, the southern part of the Gobi desert and other deserts of the world, but it will be associated with an increase of productivity of Sahel region in Africa and Southern Europe.

Big changes will occur on the territories of temperate belt of the Northern Hemisphere, especially in most parts of Russia. In the first quarter of the XXI century the winter will become softer at 5-7 ° C. This means that the winter in the European part of Russia that already resembles the winter in Western Europe will be the same as in Europe. It will be slightly chilly, but with heavy snow. Don’t be surprised by the swings of winter temperatures. Due to the fact that the territory of Russia is open to free flow of cold air currents from the Arctic Ocean, cold air waves will roll up to the southern mountain ranges. But unlike previous years, the number of frost days will be reduced and frosts will be replaced with thaws more often.

The summer will be hotter and the duration of the spring-summer and autumn warm period will start to lengthen. Early snowmelt and spring floods will happen more often and will become more abundant. The duration of the summer season will increase and the autumn will be warmer and longer. Late autumn will remind the Indian summer. Along with the increase in the temperature, the precipitation factor will be also increased by 10-20%. This means that crop yields and productivity of livestock and poultry will increase significantly.

The warming involves changes in landscape conditions. The places of the Southern part of the continent will become more comfortable in terms of weather. At the same time in a number of areas the climate will be affected negatively. Heat-loving plants will be moved to the North. This will lead to the fact that in suburban areas, growing grapes, eggplant, melons and watermelons will turn from exotic to mundane. During the Early Middle Ages in England and in northern Germany people grew grapes. Even today in some places in central and northern Germany the population successfully cultivates grapes. Tundra and forest-tundra will cease to exist on the shores of the Arctic Ocean as a separate element of the landscape, which can no longer be cited as the Arctic, as it will be likely covered with seasonal ice. Pine forests mixed with deciduous trees will grow there.

Particularly troubling is the state of permafrost soils. Many people still incorrectly call them “permafrost”. We have been convinced repeatedly that nothing is eternal in this world. Indeed, “eternal frost” that we see today have originated only 20 thousand years ago and before that it was not much warmer than in the modern era (Schneider 101). And there were no warm Mesozoic and early Cenozoic Eras. In those times, in large areas of Siberia and Alaska there was mostly thermophilic fauna and the Arctic islands were covered with deciduous and coniferous-deciduous forests.

As a result of proliferation of modern warming, the speed of melting of permafrost soils quickly increases. But many cities, towns, highways, pipelines in Alaska were built, taking into consideration permafrost. The melting of glaciers leads not only to the destruction of industrial and residential buildings and communications, but also causes waterlogging of vast areas.

Even more serious modifications of the climate will undergo in Africa, South Asia, Central and South America, the Middle East and South East Asia. In all these regions the temperatures will change slightly, but the climate will become more arid. The difference between the equatorial and Polar Regions becomes less and less visible, due to the fact of global warming. This will lead to a weakening of cyclonic activity that would reduce the humidity and originality of its redistribution on land.

Most severe droughts and forest fires will occur in tropics and subtropics, such as those that swept in 1998 in Indonesia and in 2001-2003 raged in Australia and South America. The reduction of humidity will lead to the rapid spread of deserts in these regions. The climate change will be insignificant in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, China and parts of South-Eastern Asia, but extreme heat and drought and natural disasters, associated with disturbances in the atmosphere, will be dominating in these regions.

In connection with the ongoing warming, the changes will occur in agricultural production and they will greatly influence the people`s health. In urban and rural areas more and more people will be exposed to heat stress. People will die from heat and sunstrokes. The epidemic deceases will spread much faster.

After the melting of glaciers, the volume of the World Ocean has increased by a quarter. This fact has baffled many people and forces us to make wrong conclusions. As scientists believe, the process of ice melting will be irreversible. And sea levels could rise by tens of meters. This is the basis for most gloomy projections that flooding will occur in many populated and well established low-lying areas. Even the most optimistic forecasts do not bode well. Here’s one of those predictions. After several years of intensive melting of glaciers, which, as believed, have already begun, the sea level will rise by 6-8 meters (Archer 159). Even an increase in sea level of one meter can lead to the fact that many coastal lowlands of the United States, Canada and Europe will disappear under water. Very difficult situation may arise in the lowlands of northern Siberia and the Arctic Islands. Most of them will be flooded by sea water and the rest will be very swampy. However, ice conditions in the Arctic will be improved. Arctic Ocean will be free from multi-year ice, which will only occur in winter and melt in summer. Port facilities and marinas will be flooded.

Climate change and global warming has a number of effects on the flora and fauna.

If the climate will become even slightly warmer, plants and animals that are used to a cooler climate will be forced to migrate to the poles or to areas situated at high altitude.

This process is observed in many places of the world – in the Alps, in the mountainous Queensland in Australia, in the misty forests of Costa Rica.

The impact on the species will become so significant that these movements may serve as an indicator of global warming. They are mute evidence of the rapid changes that affect the Earth.

Scientists predict that global warming in the near future could cause a mass extinction of wildlife, affecting more than 1 million species, or about a quarter of all species known at this time.

Global warming provokes significant changes in climatic conditions and this can disrupt sensitive ecosystems in which animals live. Species that are in danger of extinction due to climate change can already be found around the world (Valsson 63).

The future of giant pandas remains uncertain because of a number of threats. Wooded residences of pandas in mountainous areas of western China are inhabited with fragmented small populations of giant panda, which are isolated from one another.

Bamboo is the main diet of panda and also a part of a sensitive ecosystem that is vulnerable to changes, caused by global warming. In addition, the widespread threat is poaching. Through it all, there are only about 1,600 giant panda species left in the wild.

Many sea turtles that bury their eggs on the beaches of Brazil are threatened by the rising sea levels. Climate changes are also dangerous for posterity of sea turtles, because the temperature of the nest determines the sex of the offspring: cold makes male offspring, whereas heat promotes the emergence of female (Ploutz 233). Warming reduces the amount of nesting habitat of male offspring and seriously threatening the viability of turtle populations.

Orangutan Borneo – Indonesia

Their last homes are the tropical forests of Indonesia. These forests are under the yoke of many factors, including climate change, which creates a real threat of extinction of these animals in a few decades. With acceleration of global warming the length and frequency of droughts in these forests increases and forest fires are more common. The space, dividing the orangutans, becomes vaster.

While the Southern polar whales (Eubalaena australіs) bloom, the Northern polar whales (Eubalaena glasіalіs) are virtually annihilated. South Pacific polar whale is under the greatest threat of all the giant whales, because, in addition it is destroyed by man. The warming waters contain less plankton, which feeds the whales.

That is, climate fluctuations lead to deterioration in the availability of food for whales, which also leads to increased mortality. Now there are only 300-350 species of South Pacific bowhead whales and there is almost no hope for the growth of their population (Valsson 48).

Elephants in Africa are set to face many threats, including the shrinking living space that increasingly draws them into conflict with humans. With the shrinking of living space the elephants will be unable to avoid the consequences of changes in their natural habitats, under the influence of global warming. These changes have provoked more frequent and prolonged periods of drought and they are causing additional danger to their existence.

Toads and other wildlife species that depend on fresh water are suffering from droughts that have been going on for several years in Australia. Climate change has a negative impact on vitality and breeding cycles of many species of toads in Australia. Because frogs need water to breed, any reduction or change in rainfall could reduce the populations of frogs.

High temperatures trigger drainage of ponds in which reproduction takes place, so the eggs and tadpoles are dying. Drier conditions also lead to the death of adult individuals through large water loss through permeable toad integuments.

Blaming the global warming does not help the cause. At the UN Conference on climate change in Netherlands, the United Kingdom warned that the world may miss a vital opportunity to prevent the devastating effects of global warming. The heads of government of the European countries said that devastating floods of the last decade have become a nightmare for them. They see the United States as the main culprit. John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has criticized the remarks of French President Jacques Chirac, who accused the United States of poisoning the atmosphere. Finger-pointing does not advance the negotiations (Booker 311).

The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved by improving the energy efficiency, reducing heat and fuel losses, renewing the energy complex, and transiting to safer fuels (such as oil to gas), by slowing the consumption of fossil fuels; the resource is known to be essentially non-renewable. The development of alternative, environmentally friendly energy technologies can save our planet.

Performing all these steps, we can slow down the process of global warming, and in the future even stabilize the environmental situation. But to do this each of us must make their own small contribution to climate protection.