How does Climate Change affect Mankind?

Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1880’s, humans have released millions of tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases. These gases are given off by factories burning fossil fuels, car emissions and agriculture. The burning of fossil fuels give off gases that allow radiation from the sun to pass through it but not to return back into space. This in turn causes the warming of the Earth. Car emissions are also a contributor to the rise in these gases. Agriculture burns rice and biomass which causes it to be the sector that releases 30% of the world’s total methane emissions. Indigenous people of the Amazon practice slash and burn which gives the soil nutrients for farming. Foreigners also do this but it is common that the fires go out of control or the use the land for too long thus depriving a region of a forest of nutrients. This leads to more CO2 emissions and less O2 being taken out of the atmosphere since trees perform photosynthesis.

Since there is more radiation trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere, this makes the probability of cyclones occurring increase. This is because of the radiation heating the Earth, the air temperature near the ground increases and then the warm air rises. This condenses to form clouds which could cause more rainfall and floods. Thunderstorms increase in frequency due to the convectional rainfall.

Once the moisture of the storm evaporates, huge amounts of heated warm air are twisted in the atmosphere. This is the formation of a hurricane and is a reason why they have become more frequent in recent times. In 1980, there were 45 hurricanes, they have been on the rise and in the year 1997 there were 105 hurricanes. More cyclones would destroy homes, businesses and cause the death of many people. A recent (2005) example of a hurricane is Katrina, the main road to leave the area collapsed although there has been a mass evacuation beforehand. All sorts of power failures occurred and most importantly water was in short supply. People were trapped on their roofs and even in their houses. The official death toll was around 1,400 which is a huge amount considering it was a rich country economically (USA). This is a very worrying prospect as the countries that may suffer the most are poorer than the US such a Bangladesh and the countries around the Gulf of Mexico.

Although there is some goods news which is that the number of cyclones has decreased substantially in the past couple of years (1997-2000). They have gone down from 105 to 75 but it does seem that there is a cycle in which the number of hurricanes go up and down.

The number of natural disasters has shot up in a relatively short period in time. Climate Change has no effect on the amount of Earthquakes as this is determined by tectonics. In the years 2010 and 2011 the number of earthquakes has increased dramatically but this probably due to one earthquake causing another. This is similar to a chain-reaction or domino effect. For example the earthquake in Haiti brought the Chile earthquake closer. The earthquake in Christchurch could have contributed to the one in Japan. This has occurred because earthquakes are a release in pressure.

Floods ,on the other hand have risen recently, this may have been caused by climate change. The melting of the polar ice caps has made the sea levels rise which causes more floods especially in low countries such as Bangladesh. The North Pole is losing 150 to 250 cubic kilometres of ice annually. Bangladesh is a LIC (low income country) and relies heavily on agriculture (rice). The success of a season is down to the monsoon. Since the number of cyclones have increased more rain makes the crops rot and therefore useless. Too little rain causes the crops to die because of lack of water. If the season is a total failure not only would the people left hungry but they will not be left with any seeds for the following season. To add insult to injury the sea levels are rising and the risk of flooding is becoming more threatening. They have already experienced floods before with devastating consequences but more floods might even wipe them off the map. The Government needs to borrow money but if the natural disasters continue to occur they will not have any money to spend on improving the country’s defences and infrastructure. This is a vicious circle which seems to have no end. In a three year period (1996-1999) the floods have increased by about 60. They are also declining but this could be because it is on a cycle as well.

There is also a serious problem on the other end of the spectrum. This lack of water known as droughts. Where places are getting more water, others are receiving less. Heat waves and extreme droughts have occurred more often in places such as Southern Spain.  The young and elderly would be hit the hardest as they are more susceptible to suffer from heat waves and deprivation of water.

Humans pump out huge amounts of Carbon Dioxide which in turn reacts with the water making it become more acidic. The natural process in which the Oceans are neutralised is algae. They photosynthesise so they remove CO2 and give back O2. The ratio of oxygen in the water may be vital to some living creatures. The seas are warming and in the 125 years they have increased in temperature by around a degree Fahrenheit. This makes it harder for the algae to survive as they do not have their ideal temperature. They can go to cooler waters by going deeper but then they do not have sunlight. Less oxygen may cause species of fish to move away from their normal habitats, they may go to depths that they cannot be fished and they may even die. This could occur if their natural food died out which then would affect the food-chain entirely. Humans consume a lot of sea creatures every year and if it were to be in short supply there would be a problem with food distribution. If the algae die then the sea would become more acid. As the sea becomes more acid it becomes increasingly difficult for algae to survive.

Humans will suffer from climate change and we are not sure what will be the consequences. We should prepare to stop humans from the poorer countries from getting hit hardest by this. But we are not to worry so much as we humans are extremely adaptable and have thrived in several different environments. We have survived the last Ice Age with primitive techniques and technology.