Climate Change, Coming Home: Global Warming's Effects on Populations

cultral relativism

"Climate Change, Coming Home: Global Warming's Effects on Populations " by Sarah DeWeerdt

Abstract

Environmental change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average (e.g., more or fewer extreme weather events). Environmental change may be limited to a specific region or may occur across the globe. An increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, and a probable expansion of subtropical deserts and sub Sahara Africa . Global warming is expected to be strongest in the Arctic and would be associated with continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice. Other likely effects of the warming include more frequent occurrence of extreme weather events including heat waves, droughts and heavy rainfall events, species extinction due to shifting temperature regimes, and changes in agricultural yields. Warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe, with projections being more robust in some areas than others. In a 4 oC world, the limits for human adaptation are likely to be exceeded in many parts of the world, while the limits for adaptation for natural systems would largely be exceeded throughout the world. Hence, the ecosystem services upon which human livelihood depend would not be preserved. Environmental change leads to warming's effects on population," in World Watch Journal, Sarah Deweerdt describes sparse rainfall in Sahel, an area in Africa

"Climate Change, Coming Home: Global Warming's Effects on Populations " by Sarah Deweerdt.

along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. This area has experienced many long droughts, thus to combat these droughts the local government decided to build dams to trap rainfall. These dams were then connected to irrigation systems. Shortly there after harvests increased, as did cases of malaria due to the breeding grounds the dams created for mosquito's. This scenario is a glimpse into the future for the rest of the world, a "view of how global climate change can play havoc with populations' lives and livelihoods," Deweerdt says. Clearly, Africa has already begun to suffer from climate change, so what is really in store for the future? We can see from satellite images and research that the ice caps are melting faster, our sea levels are rising, and weather patterns are changing. We are experiencing more water shortages and we will see hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones increasing in ferocity and frequency. The deserts will expand and the world will ultimately have difficulty growing enough food. Without doubt, we have to change the way we live. Climate change is and will impact all of us regardless of how much

you make. Policy has real problems because science in academia is blind to the temperatures discussed. If the sciences are blind, so is policy because policy is based on science. Buildings are designed and insulated for specific temperatures so we

use less energy as well as produce less emissions. In finding the cause of urban heat islands and how they use energy responding to them, we found buildings were being radiated by the same sun that burns us. Science depicts fact, so is reality. Appreciation of scientific innovation is a wonderful thing, because it makes what is excellent in others to belong to us as well. The effect of global warming is a reality based facts but sometime,

"Climate Change, Coming Home: Global Warming's Effects on Populations " by Sarah Deweerdt.

extraordinary sense of urgency to what need to be done and when it should be done really questions the clarity of the emergency of global warming. Pollution and population increased without a doubt made it possible to over use