Impacts of Global Climate Change

The impacts of global climate change are occurring worldwide and will only continue to expand as time goes on.

Examples of climate change impacts on the globe that are already happening:

• Increases in weather extremes in both summer AND winter
• Longer, more devastating droughts
• Larger, more destructive forest fires
• More intense flooding
• Rising ocean levels
• Melting of the northern permafrost
• Radically altering currents

Let's look at a few of these items in more detail.

Contrary to public opinion, climate change is much more than just "global warming" which people often associate with hotter summers. The phenomenon also affects winter seasons by causing more extreme fluctuations in temperatures. Also, mega-storms during winter months can also be associated with climate change simply because, as the climate changes, so do overall weather patterns.

Droughts have become more severe in recent years, affecting the western US, Asia, Africa and Australia. The impact is obvious and dramatic... decreased rainfall leads to dying farmlands, desertification and famine.

Droughts also can affect the severity of forest fires, for lack of rainfall creates much dryer conditions. Just ask anyone in California, which is practically the fire capital of the world. (Australia has also seen a sharp increase in fires due to drought.)

Flooding has always existed but has seen a dramatic increase in recent years. Climate change is all about an increase in the severity of pre-existing natural phenomenon and flash-flooding is no exception.

Rising ocean levels occur for two main reasons. One is that as overall ocean temperatures increase (as they do much faster than land surface temperatures) the oceans of the world expand, causing ocean levels to rise.

Secondly, as glaciers and icebergs melt, tremendous volumes of fresh water rushes into the oceans, causing sea level rises that could reach as high as several meters this century. If there is any doubt that this is not happening now, just Google "Tuvalu and climate change" for stories about the tiny island nation in the South Pacific that is already seeking to relocate it's inhabitants due to rising ocean levels.

Melting of the northern permafrost -- this is potentially the worst side-effect of all as it creates a dramatic feedback loop. As permafrost melts, it releases trapped methane -- methane is more than 20 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

Last on this list (which really only covers the basics anyway) is the alteration of ocean currents. Vast amounts of fresh water from melting glaciers is dumping into the oceans of the world. The most dramatic example is in the North Atlantic where fresh water from the Greenland ice shelf is already beginning to disturb the ocean current that keeps England and Northern Europe from turning into Scandinavia. If the current collapses completely we may see snow in North Africa.

All of the above examples are direct impacts of global climate change, are occurring NOW and will continue as the overall temperature of the planet increases in the coming decades. If you doubt anything in this global warming essay you are free to peruse the thousands of global warming articles at HotGlobe.org for further proof.

Even more important than just reading a bunch of news articles is to take action.

While recently doing some research on various solar solutions I was surprised to discover how many interesting solar applications have come out in the last few years. Things like solar lanterns for backyards, driveway lights, portable cell phone chargers, DIY wind turbines... the list goes on and on.

The point is -- take action with your wallet! Invest in green technologies and they'll spread, hopefully to the point where we can get off the grid and rewire the planet in a way that isn't harmful to it and the creatures that depend on it.