It is difficult, if not impossible to project or predict all the implications of Climate Change. "Greenlands glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed" based on new satellite imagery. Vicky Arroyo, from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, said that "This is the kind of study that should make people stay awake at night wondering what were doing to the climate, how were shaping the planet for future generations and, especially, what we can do about it." (17).
- [M]ost climate researchers, including the respected United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, contend that unless CO2 emissions can be dramatically lowered in the next several decades, global temperatures will climb by as much as seven degrees Fahrenheit by 2050 and by as much as ten degrees by 2100. At these temperatures, we could expect a kind of Endless Summer, in which icecaps melt away completely, seas rise by twenty inches (and keep rising for centuries), island nations drown, entire tropical landmasses turn into deserts, species go extinct, and storms become more frequent and deadlier." (18).
Severity?
While it is fair to say that a concensus has developed around the existense of climate change, predictions as to effects of climate change vary from the dire to the less severity.
Some of the more severe estimates of the effect of global warming include:
More Rain:
"Polar sea ice formation and climate patterns drive large ocean circulation currents, which in turn affect local climates at moderate latitudes where most people live. A warming world should fuel more precipitation, most experts agree." (19).
Lopsided Planet:
Extra precipitation expected as a result of global warming could create a lopsided world in which sea ice increases in the south pole while the far north melts away. (19)
Destroying Animal Habitats:
"It may be the latest evidence of global warming: Polar bears are drowning. Scientists for the first time have documented multiple deaths of polar bears off Alaska, where they likely drowned after swimming long distances in the ocean amid the melting of the Artic ice shelf." (20).
Increased Storm intensity
Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science at MIT "reports that worldwide, these storms [hurricanes and typhoons] are nearly twice as powerful today as they were 30 years ago. Global warming has intensified the trend []." (21).
Some scientists have indicated that there may be natural processes to regulate these changes in global temperature. Regarding the thawing of the Arctic which is already occurring, Dr. Hinzman, a University of Alaska hydrologist, said "There has to be some environmental controls to slow these effects. [The Arctic has undergone warming trends in the past] so something must regulate these processes." (13). There were no suggestions for what, in fact, may help ameliorate the temperature increase.
Other studies have found that the impact of climate change has been overstated. For example, a 2005 study of the American Meteorological Society discussed the alleged relationship between "global warming, hurricanes, and hurricane impacts." (65) The authors of that report surveyed the then-existing peer-reviewed literature and noted "Since 1995 there has been an increase in the number of storms and in particular the number of major hurricanes (category 3, 4, and 5) in the Atlantic. But the changes of the past decade in these metrics are not so large as to clearly indicate that anything is going on other than the multidecadal variability that has been well documented since at least 1900." (65) The report concludes that "claims of linkages between global warming and hurricane impacts are premature". (65)
Next:
Is the Impact overstated?
