Thursday 9 September 2010

Negatives of Global Warming


Agriculture

·                     Decreasing human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts (Solomon 2009)
·                     Decline in rice yields due to warmer nighttime minimum temperatures (Peng 2004, Tao 2008)
·                     Increase of Western United States wildfire activity, associated with higher temperatures and earlier spring snowmelt (Westerling 2006)
·                     Encroachment of shrubs into grasslands, rendering rangeland unsuitable for domestic livestock grazing (Morgan 2007)
·                     Decreased water supply in the Colorado River Basin (McCabe 2007)
·                     Decreasing water supply to the Murray-Darling Basin (Cai 2008)

Health

·                            Increased deaths to heatwaves - 5.74% increase to heatwaves compared to 1.59% to cold snaps (Medina-Ramon 2007)
·                            Increased heat stress in humans and other mammals (Sherwood 2010)
·                            Spread in mosquite-borne diseases such as Malaria and Dengue Fever (Epstein 1998)
·                            Increase in occurrence of allergic symptoms due to rise in allergenic pollen (Rogers 2006)

Arctic Melt

·                     Loss of 2/3 of the world's polar bear population within 50 years (Amstrup 2007)
·                     Less compacted ice, hazardous floes and more mobile icebergs posing increased risk to shipping (IICWG 2009)
·                     Drying of arctic ponds with subsequent damage to ecosystem (Smol 2007)
Warming causes methane to escape from Arctic regions, contributing additional greenhouse warming. The following have been observed:
·                     Melting of Arctic lakes leading methane bubbling (Walter 2007)
·                     Leakage of methane from the East Siberian Shelf seabed sediments (Shakhova 2008)
·                     Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin (Westbrook 2009)

Environment

·                            Rainforests releasing CO2 as regions become drier (Saleska 2009)
·                            Extinction of the European land leech (Kutschera 2007)
·                            Decrease in Adélie penguin numbers  (Ducklow 2006)
·                            Disruption to New Zealand aquatic species such as salmonids, stream invertebrates, fishes (Ryan 2007)
·                            Oxygen poor ocean zones are growing  (Stramma 2008, Shaffer 2009)
·                            Increased mortality rates of healthy trees in Western U.S. forest (Pennisi 2009)
·                            More severe and extensive vegetation die-off due to warmer droughts (Breshears 2009)
·                            Increased pine tree mortality due to outbreaks of pine beetles (Kurz 2008,Bentz 2010)
·                            Increased risk of coral extinction from bleaching and diseased driven by warming waters (Carpenter 2008)
·                            Decline in lizard populations (Sinervo 2010)
·                            Decline in global phytoplankton (Boyce 2010)
·                            Decline in global net primary production - the amount of carbon absorbed by plants (Zhao 2010)

Ocean Acidification

·                     Substantial negative impacts to marine ecosystems (Orr 2005, Fabry 2008,Kroeker 2010)
·                     Inhibiting plankton development, disruption of carbon cycle (Turley 2005)
·                     Increased mortalities of sea urchins (Miles 2007)
·                     Threat to fish populations (Munday 2010)

Glacier Melt

·                            Severe consequences for one-sixth of world's population dependent on ice and snow melt for water supply (Barnett 2005)
·                            Contribution to rising sea levels (Pfeffer 2008, Vermeer 2009)

Economical

·                     Economic damage to poorer, low latitude countries (Mendelsohn 2006)
·                     Billions of dollars of damage to public infrastructure (Larsen 2007)
·                     Reduced water supply in New Mexico (Hurd 2008)
·                     Increased risk of conflict (Zhang 2007) including increased risk of civil war in Africa (Burke 2009)

Sea Level Rise

·                            Hundreds of millions displaced within this century (Dasgupta 2009)
·                            Coastal erosion in Nigeria (Okude 2006)