The consequences of global warming Can manifest themselves in various ways. Among the main ones are: average rise in temperature of the Earth, emission of carbon dioxide by burning fuel or deforestation.
The natural greenhouse effect keeps Earth's temperature at a safe level, making it possible for humans and many other life forms to exist.
However, since the Industrial Revolution human activities have significantly increased this process causing the average temperature of the Earth to increase by almost 1 ° C.
To put this increase in perspective, it is important to understand that during the last ice age, the average temperature change around the globe was only about 5 ° C.
On the other hand, global warming is accelerating the melting of ice sheets and glaciers, which is causing sea levels to rise. Among other consequences of large scale are rainfall and weather patterns, which have also changed, causing some places to dry up.
The origin of global warming takes place in the atmosphere which is composed mainly of Nitrogen and Oxygen with steam and several gases that make up the rest.
At the same time there are extra gases such as argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, hydrogen, nitrous oxide and ozone, which are sometimes called greenhouse gases because during the day the earth absorbs heat by acting as a greenhouse .
In this way, the issue to be discussed would be how the gases are catching more heat to, consequently, increase the global temperature since today global warming is affecting the human species, plants and animals and is therefore a reality.
The consequences of global warming
1- Melting glaciers
The melting of the glaciers will create a lot of problems for the human species and the animals that live on the earth.
Due to increased global warming, sea level will rise, leading to large-scale flooding leading to changes in human life. Apart from raising the sea level, it will also endanger several species of animals and, therefore, will hamper the balance of the ecosystem.
In this line, the melting of polar ice caps and less water evaporating into the atmosphere are causing an increase in sea level, eliminating whole islands and thousands of kilometers of coastal areas around the world.
2- Climate change
Irregular weather patterns have already begun to show results. Increased precipitation in the form of rain has already been observed in the polar and sub-polar regions.
The more global warming, the more evaporation, which will cause more rain. As a consequence, animals and plants can not easily adapt to increased precipitation and may emigrate to other ecosystems where a change in biotic balance would occur.
However, the Factors that modify the climate Are not always directly related to global warming.
3- Droughts
While there is flooding, severe drought is occurring in other parts of the world. As temperatures warm, the presence of drought has increased in places like the western United States.
In addition, due to heat waves and little precipitation, entire forests have begun to disappear, including tens of millions of trees in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Large-scale evaporation will be the main cause of drought in many places, particularly in Africa. And although this is already a continent that is staggering due to the water crisis, the increase in global warming would further worsen the situation and cause worse cases of malnutrition.
4- Diseases
As the temperature warms up, it can affect the health of humans and the diseases to which they are exposed.
With increasing rainfall, waterborne diseases spread faster, such as malaria. In this sense, the Earth will become warmer and as a result of heat waves, diseases are likely to increase.
5- Frequency of hurricanes
As the temperature of the oceans rises, hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger. With increasing global warming, the water in the ocean heats up as well as the surrounding air, creating hurricanes more often.
6- Agriculture
Global warming can affect agriculture. Although the results are not yet visible, their effects can be shown in the coming years. As the global temperature increases, plants will have more difficulty surviving and will die.
Vegetation is the main source of food for humans and as a result food shortages can lead to conflict between countries.
7- Heat waves
Because of greenhouse gases and other causes, unexpected peaks of severe weather would be only the tip of the iceberg in global warming. Heat waves cause dangerously high temperatures and in recent years more deaths have occurred due to heat waves than in the last sixty years.
8- Frequent forest fires
Although forest fires are a natural occurrence since the carbon dioxide added to the air causes combustion. However, forest fires have been increasing.
The rate of burning is longer than before and, with the release of carbon dioxide into the air, not only people's lives are in danger, but wildlife suffers severely.
9- Severe rainfall
There is insurmountable scientific evidence that global warming is increasing certain types of events, including extreme precipitation.
Global warming also creates conditions that can lead to the formation of hurricanes and storms.
Cities and towns along the coast, where sea level is already rising, face even more challenges as precipitation raises serious floods.
Global warming affects the duration of the seasons, such as spring coming ten days earlier.
10- Crops
As the seasons are changing, weather patterns are becoming unpredictable, sea levels rise and crops have difficulty surviving.
Once the food processing industry becomes variable, the economy first affects the poorer countries and then the more developed countries. In this line, the price of basic crops could rise in excess.
11- Oceans
Coral reefs in the ocean continue to decline due to global warming. Changes in temperature affect the Earth's surface and the sea floor. Once coral reefs are affected, entire ecosystems would be severely damaged.
Coral reefs are the ecosystem of thousands of marine species, and also serve to protect coasts from severe waves; Without them life at sea would be reduced to almost 90% less than there is now.
12- Food Chain
The whole food chain could be affected and huge consequences could occur in the livestock, agriculture and food production industry in general (grains, vegetables, fruits, meat, fish, chickens, etc.).
13- Risks to health
As more carbon dioxide gets trapped in the atmosphere,"breathable"air becomes more difficult to achieve. For example, if global warming continues, the United States will invest $ 60 million in less than a decade to combat respiratory diseases and symptoms.
In cities like Beijing, there are already high alerts in airports and land routes because of the large amount of smog present in the air, also disrupting people's airways, the visibility of drivers.
14- Animal Extinction
There will soon be entire populations where animals can no longer thrive, either because their habitat is no longer adequate or because their food is scarce.
15- Air Quality
As the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases are released into the atmosphere, the air quality continues to worsen.
The coal-fired power generation industry is the main source of air pollution because of the large amount of carbon dioxide it sends to the atmosphere each year.
16- Decrease in population
If global warming is not controlled, it is estimated that the human population will decrease by 75%.
With the increasing severity of storms, floods, earthquakes and forest fires, natural disasters would reduce half of the earth's population. Another 25% would succumb to diseases related to air, hunger and poverty.
17- Fresh water
The supply of fresh water will decrease considerably with global warming. With the disappearance of coral reefs and their ecosystems, less fresh water will flow into lakes and tributaries.
This consequence is one of the most serious, since fresh water is one of the most valuable resources on the planet for humans and animals. Water allows the existence of practically 100% of life on Earth. Without fresh water, life can not exist as we know it.
18- Human extinction
It is difficult to imagine, but each of these events affects another. A possible last consequence is that all other named effects create a domino effect that ends with life on Earth.
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