What does climate change affect

During one recent California wildfire, suicidal and traumatized people flooded emergency rooms. In the last 20 years, food prices have risen about 2. While there are several reasons for higher food prices, climate change is a major factor.

Extreme weather affects livestock and crops, and droughts can have impacts on the stability and price of food. New York apple farmers, for example, are facing warmer winters and extreme weather, which can wipe out harvests. They are trying to save their apples with new irrigation systems and wind machines that blow warm air during cold spells, but eventually these added costs will be reflected in the price of apples. As temperatures warm and precipitation increases, more pathogens will thrive and affect plant health; in addition, more food will spoil.

And because food is a globally traded commodity today, climate events in one region can raise prices and cause shortages across the globe. For example, a drought in Brazil in and caused Arabica coffee prices to double. He and his colleagues are building quantitative economic models to examine vulnerabilities in the food system under different scenarios; they will use the tool to explore how altering certain policies might reduce the vulnerabilities of the food system to disruptions.

Three-quarters of our crops rely on insects for pollination and scientists believe 41 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction. While habitat loss is the major reason, climate change also plays a large part.

If we lose pollinators, that could mean losing some of the crops and varieties they pollinate. Intense storms and heavy precipitation can result in the contamination of water resources. In cities, runoff picks up pollutants from the streets, and can overflow sewage systems, allowing untreated sewage to enter drinking water supplies. In rural areas, runoff transports animal waste, pesticides and chemical fertilizer, and can enter drinking or recreational waters.

In some low-lying coastal areas, sea level rise could enable saltwater to enter groundwater drinking water supplies. And in areas suffering from drought, contaminants become more concentrated as water supplies decrease. In addition, algal blooms thrive in warm temperatures and can contaminate drinking water. In , residents of Toledo, Ohio had to drink bottled water for three days because their water supply was polluted with cyanobacteria toxins. Reduced snowfall and early snowmelt in the spring will have an impact on skiing, snowmobiling and other winter sports.

Less water in lakes and rivers could also affect boating and fishing during summer. Find shadier routes Photo: Aarni Heiskanen. Hotter temperatures, especially in the South and Southwest, will make summer activities like running, biking, hiking and fishing less comfortable and potentially dangerous to your health. As temperatures rise, it may get too hot for some planes to fly. Hotter air is less dense, so planes get less lift under their wings and engines produce less power.

Airlines may be forced to bump passengers or leave luggage behind to lighten their loads. This concern is one reason why long-distance flights from the Middle East leave at night; the practice could become standard for the U. Superstorm Sandy in flooded LaGuardia Airport for three days. One runway in Northern Canada had to be repaved because the permafrost on which it was built began melting.

Once in the air, you may experience more turbulence. Stronger winds create more shear a difference in wind speed over a short distance in the atmosphere, which results in turbulence. And distant storms can create waves in the atmosphere that cause turbulence hundreds of miles away. Recreational travel could be upended as climate change impacts many popular destinations. In the U. The Everglades are experiencing salt water intrusion from sea level rise.

As global temperatures continue to rise, climate change will affect our wallets, our health, our safety, and our lives. Many people are already feeling these impacts. And while there are ways to adapt on a personal level, some of these changes are going to become more severe and unavoidable over time. Sea level rise, erosion, inundation, risks to infrastructure and increasing ocean acidity pose major threats.

Increasing wildfire, insect outbreaks and tree diseases are causing widespread tree die-off. Extreme heat will affect health, energy, agriculture and more.

Decreased water availability will have economic and environmental impacts. Extreme heat, heavy downpours and flooding will affect infrastructure, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality, and more.

Climate change will also exacerbate a range of risks to the Great Lakes. Increased heat, drought and insect outbreaks, all linked to climate change, have increased wildfires. Declining water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, health impacts in cities due to heat, and flooding and erosion in coastal areas are additional concerns.

Taken as a whole, the range of published evidence indicates that the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.

An indicator of current global sea level as measured by satellites; updated monthly. GISS climate models.

Climate Time Machine. Video: Global warming from to NASA visualization of future global temperature projections based on current climate models. Visualization comparing s and s. NASA visualizations of future precipitation scenarios.

Precipitation Measurement Missions. Precipitation quiz. West projected to be worst of millennium. Sea level quiz. Test your knowledge of sea level rise and its effect on global populations. The Arctic Ocean is expected to become essentially ice free in summer before mid-century.

Global Ice Viewer. Images of Change. Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux. Climate Mobile Apps. You can find further exciting information on the subject of climate change and climate protection in our climate booklet. Offset now. What are the effects of climate change and global warming? Related articles What are climate offset projects?

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