I decided to return to a topic I've blogged about previously, the IPCC. As I mentioned before, the reports include many possible future scenarios based on today's trends of climate change. Pretty much all of those were negative, therefore I thought it would be fitting under this week's topic of an environmental dystopia. I don't know if this is what Ms. McWilliams intended for this topic, however.
What makes this scarier is that this "future" isn't just a science fiction story, it was predicted by real scientists and deemed plausible enough by thousands of other scientists to publish it. This dystopia might just become a reality.
Summary:
Based on the IPCC's Fifth Assessment on Climate Change and other resources, the following are consequences of climate change that are beginning today and are predicted to increase in the future:
- Crop reduction will occur in tropical and subtropical areas, which will cause inflation and for some, starvation.
- Insect outbreaks will increase, which will disrupt plants and increase the spread of disease among animals.
- Poor air quality in cities will increase respiratory disease.
- Droughts will become more frequent and widespread, thus increasing starvation and wildfires.
- Extreme episodes of heat waves will increase worldwide, leading to more wildfires, death, and a decrease in water quality due to algae blooms.
- Heavy precipitation, such as downpours and whiteouts, which will tarnish water quality, increase flooding, damage crops, erode soil, and spread disease.
- As many as a third of all species known by scientists will be at risk of extinction.
- Rising sea levels will cause freshwater to become brackish, thus disrupting the balance of sea-life. Human populations will also have to migrate to higher land.
"We are 25 years too late. If the object is to avoid dangerous change, we've already had it. The object now is to avoid really dangerous change." -climatologist Stephen Schneider of Stanford University
Citation:
Biello, David. "State of the Science: Beyond the Worst Case Climate Change
Scenario." Scientific American. Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc., 26 Nov. 2007. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/ article.cfm?id=state-of-the-science-beyond-the-worst-climate-change-case>.
Another link:
http://climate.nasa.gov/effects
Citation:
Biello, David. "State of the Science: Beyond the Worst Case Climate Change
Scenario." Scientific American. Scientific American, a division of Nature America, Inc., 26 Nov. 2007. Web. 14 Dec. 2013. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/ article.cfm?id=state-of-the-science-beyond-the-worst-climate-change-case>.
Another link:
http://climate.nasa.gov/effects
This is scary to think about. I never realized how much of an effect it would take on the crops that we eat. I never really thought about the risk of starvation. I remember the topic of the seas rising coming up in the lecture we attended, and it's extremely scary to think that this could happen if we don't raise awareness.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it seems we are "late" in our actions, it is still important to keep fighting. Because if we were late for this then we can be late for something in the future. We can't focus on what we failed on in the past but can only focus on what we can improve in the future.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Molly that we need to kept trying to stop it even if what we've already done is irreversible. At the rate we're going, we are still continuing to destroy our environment. I never really thought about some of these consequences like respiratory diseases and disease among animals.
ReplyDelete