Effects of global warming
Global warming,
the gradual heating of Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, is
caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that
pump carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Already, the consequences and effects of global warming are measurable and visible on the planet.
"We
can observe this happening in real time in many places," Josef Werne, a
professor of geology and environmental science at the University of
Pittsburgh, told Live Science. "Ice is melting in both polar ice caps
and mountain glaciers. Lakes around the world, including Lake Superior,
are warming rapidly — in some cases faster than the surrounding
environment. Animals are changing migration patterns and plants are
changing the dates of activity," such as trees budding their leaves
earlier in the spring and dropping them later in the fall.
Global warming
the gradual heating of Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, is
caused by human activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that
pump carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Already, the consequences and effects of global warming are measurable and visible on the planet.
"We
can observe this happening in real time in many places," Josef Werne, a
professor of geology and environmental science at the University of
Pittsburgh, told Live Science. "Ice is melting in both polar ice caps
and mountain glaciers. Lakes around the world, including Lake Superior,
are warming rapidly — in some cases faster than the surrounding
environment. Animals are changing migration patterns and plants are
changing the dates of activity," such as trees budding their leaves
earlier in the spring and dropping them later in the fall.
One of the primary manifestations of climate change so far is melt.
North America, Europe and Asia have all seen a trend toward less snow
cover between 1960 and 2015, according to 2016 research .According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, there is now or permanently frozen ground, in the Northern Hemisphere than there was
in the early 1900s. The thawing of permafrost can cause landslides and other sudden land collapses. It can also release long-buried microbes, as in a 2016 case when a cache of buried reindeer carcasses thawed and caused an outbreak of anthrax.
One of the most dramatic effects of global warming is the reduction in
Arctic sea ice. Sea ice hit record-low extents in both the fall and
winter of 2015 and 2016, meaning that at the time when the ice is
supposed to be at its peak, it was lagging. The melt means there is less
thick sea ice that persists for multiple years. That means less heat is
reflected back into the atmosphere by the shiny surface of the ice and
more is absorbed by the comparatively darker ocean, creating a feedback
loop that causes even more melt.
Glacial retreat, too, is an obvious effect of global warming. Only 25
glaciers bigger than 25 acres are now found in Montana's Glacier
National Park, where about 150 glaciers were once found, according to
the U.S. Geological Survey. A similar trend is seen in glacial areas
worldwide. According to a 2016 study in the journal Nature Geoscience, that this rapid retreat is due to human-caused climate change. Some
glaciers retreated up to 15 times as much as they would have without
global warming, those researchers found.
By Robin shekhawat
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