Effects of Climate Change

Climate Change Why worry about climate change now, when it 200 years we probably won't bother with it at all. Of course, that's because 200 years from now, the human race might not exist. Climate change is occurring at a rapid pace, and we are already past many key tipping points. The basics are this: burning carbon creates a greenhouse gas effect.

We used to call this global warming, but climate change is a more accurate way of framing it, because the climate effects are going to be different in different areas around the world, but in general it will result in increased temperatures (Shah, 2013). At present, our main task as a society is to limit the amount of carbon that we expel into the atmosphere so as to limit the negative effects of climate change.

In the future, it will require a tremendous amount of effort to survive the outcomes of climate change -- rising oceans, acidification of oceans, increased desertification and more frequent extreme weather events (Shah, 2013). As countries become unable to feed their populations, conflict will increase dramatically (Reuters, 2014), as will disease and starvation. In essence, if nothing is done about climate change, and we continue to pollute the way we have been doing, human society as we know it will be at risk, and ultimately so will our very survival.

Effects Today Climate change is already happening, and it will affect today's societies. The saturation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere is at record high levels, and in the last century the global sea level has risen 17 centimeters. The global temperature has risen dramatically, such that the 10 hottest years since 1880 have occurred within the past 12 years (NASA, 2014). These figures are not outliers -- and they backed with data about the shrinking polar ice sheets, warming oceans and a 30% rise in the acidity of ocean surface water (NASA, 2014).

The effects are already showing -- Miami is being submerged (Staletovich, 2014) and acidification in Alaskan waters threatens 50% of America's total seafood production (Rocha, 2014) -- scallop and oyster fisheries have already been devastated in British Columbia and Washington (Schlanger, 2014). Furthermore, desertification is increasing, a condition where deserts increase their size, something that occurs with a combination of hot temperatures and declining rainfall that make it difficult for plantlife to survive. Each year, 12 million hectares are lost to desertification, a rate that is 30 to 35 times the historical rate.

Desertification is expected to affect 1.5 billion people, and 50 million people may be displaced within the next ten years (UN, 2014). Most glaciers in the world are also retreated, the most important ones being at the poles, as these glaciers not only reflect sunlight back away from the earth, but they absorb tremendous amounts of energy. We are also seeing an increase in extreme weather events, including high temperature events and extreme rainfall (NASA, 2014).

These effects are not accidental -- they are directly linked to the changes in the chemical composition of our atmosphere that are brought about by burning fossil fuels, a process that releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Effects Tomorrow The effects of climate change today are merely inconvenient, and most of the affect the developing world more than they do the developed world. But in the future -- that of our children and grandchildren -- these effects with be much stronger, because climate change is a feedback loop.

The most critical is the melting of polar ice caps. This is what it causing the rise in sea levels. Worse, when the polar snows melt -- and in particular when permafrost melts -- it will release methane trapped in the permafrost and at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. There is a massive amount of methane hydrate stored under the ocean floors.

Potentially, this is an energy source, but climate change may destabilize the methane hydrates, causing the methane separate and escape into the atmosphere, intensifying the greenhouse gas effect (World Ocean Review, 2014). methane hydrate, with methane molecule surrounded by water molecules. Source: World Ocean Review (2014) Remediation and Resolution It may be too late to fully reverse the effects of climate change. The planet will, of course, restore its own equilibrium in the millions of years after our extinction, but to save human society, we need to take action now.

The first thing is energy conservation. We currently use too much energy, some of it to power our entire economic system but a lot of energy is used very inefficiently. Among the worst uses is commuting in cars -- we build communities that are vast, spread out, and build our lives in a way that demands we drive many miles every day, usually alone in our vehicles. This is horribly inefficient, and has contributed to the pollution of greenhouse gases.

There will also have to be shifts in our economic activity. For some reason, we think it logical to import goods from all over the world, burning fossil fuels every step of the way. We settle ourselves in places that are too hot, or too cold, leaving us no choice but to burn more fuels in order to moderate temperature.

And we assume that our current levels of consumption - most of which is wasteful and does nothing to help us survive nor procreate -- are inefficient, fueling the gargantuan global economic system. We fly all over the world, often chasing nothing more than a few rays of sunshine. We never really question why we need massive houses to hold all of our goods, things we seldom even use. So there are major lifestyle changes that, should we not undertake them willingly, will eventually be forced on us anyway.

Furthermore, when we do use energy, we will have to change how. Electric cars, public transportation and bicycles are among the ways we can reduce vehicle emissions. Fostering local businesses, and using only what is local in our lives, are other steps. We should not expect to consume things produced on the other side of the world, which means rebuilding our own manufacturing capacity, and just plain consuming less. We will also need to restructure our cities, so that we do not transport ourselves so much every day.

It is absurd that so many people think nothing of driving 30 miles to work, or more, as if that wasn't harmful in so many ways. Build communities close to jobs, so that people can get to.