Global climate change will result in more than meets the eye. Here are just a few of the consequences, well-known and unknown:
- We don’t worry about it because we can’t see or feel it like, say, we would experience running into a hungry lion, breaking a leg, or fleeing from a house fire. We cannot perceive global warming, whether that warming includes a single degree Celsius or five, even though we can clearly review that data and know that there are consequences to ignoring it.
- We can compare the warming to what happens when we get a fever. We’re uncomfortable when we have a fever of only one or two degrees, and we’re in severe danger when body temperature rises further. The planet’s temperature is the same way.
- The warming leads to the melting of snow and glaciers, which further results in less sunlight reflected away. That means that there is a compounding effect, or positive feedback loop. The worse it gets, the worse it will get.
- The ocean is becoming more acidic because of heat and pollution. This kills coral and much of the foundation of a healthy ecosystem, which will eradicate most life in the oceans in the near-future.
- Extreme weather is more common. Heatwaves, drought, floods, heavy rains, forest fires, hurricanes, and more: it’s all getting worse, and the trend will continue.
- Agriculture will suffer. Certain environments will no longer be fit for growing certain kinds of foods. Crop yields will plummet due to drought.
- Smog increases in proportion to the temperature, which means we’ll all suffer adverse health effects as temperatures rise.
- Extreme weather events strain and damage our infrastructure.
- Rising sea levels will inundate many of our coastal cities and render them uninhabitable.
- Ecosystems will continue to collapse: arctic animals, coral reefs, shellfish, and forests will begin to disappear. Hundreds of species are already dying off and we are in the midst of a sixth great extinction.
- People will succumb to indirect effects of warming as well: heatstroke, exhaustion, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease.
- A fifth of wildflower species could be demolished due to global warming.
- Warming will also increase the mosquito population.
- Poison Ivy and other weeds like dandelions will become far more pervasive.
- Desertification is reducing much of the lush vegetation that ecosystems require to thrive.
- The temperature regulating rainforests will be eradicated, throwing the planet’s climate into even greater flux.
- The Mediterranean Sea is turning into a salty, acidic, and dead ocean.
- Global warming could even increase the number of erupting volcanoes.
- Those allergic to ragweed and mold will find trouble in the future, because those allergens grow exponentially higher with increases in carbon dioxide levels.
- Warming effects are also making deadly diseases more likely to resurface, while new diseases are more likely to spread.
- Wars will erupt as nations fight over resources like water and rare earth minerals, many of which are harvested in lesser quantities than they were a decade ago.