Global Impacts of Climate Change

Temperature Increase Due to the increase in greenhouse gases, more of the sun’s energy gets trapped and warms the lower atmosphere. The impacts are different over land and sea and latitude

Sea Level Rise Thermal Expansion Ice Cap Melting Glacier Movement As water heats up, it takes up more space. This is thought to account for at least 50% of the rise since 1900 Ice Cap Melting Land based ice (Greenland, West Antarctica) add to sea water content Glacier Movement The increased melting makes glaciers slide into the sea and melt more quickly

Kiribati & Tuvalu https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIG7vt1ZPKE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrT0pNiXYJo

Thawing of Permafrost Poses a threat to buildings due to thermokarst as the land becomes boggy. Also, there are huge amounts of methane trapped in the frozen ground in Siberia. Thawing of the land will release this into the atmosphere https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM0hczFNDZI

Weather extremes - Drought Some evidence suggests that droughts are becoming more frequent and more extreme. Areas such as the U.S dustbowl are thought to be under the greatest threat

Extreme rainfall As temperatures rise and the air becomes warmer, more moisture evaporates from land and water into the atmosphere. More moisture in the air generally means we can expect more rain and more heavy downpours. But this extra precipitation is not spread evenly around the globe, and some places might actually get less precipitation than they used to get. That's because climate change causes shifts in air and ocean currents, which can change weather patterns.

….. Flooding

Impact on Tropical Storms

Disruption to Ocean Gyres

Monsoon – University of Reading How will climate change affect the stability of the Indian monsoon? Climate models suggest that Asia’s summer monsoon will persist. Indeed, the average summer rainfall may increase by around five percent, increasing water available for crop production, power generation and industry. However, climate models also suggest greater variability in monsoon rainfall from year to year in a warmer world. So there could be greater range between flood and drought conditions, both of which could be more severe. The Indian summer climate in the coming century looks to be wetter on average, together with flood and drought conditions occurring more often. What we still need to answer is how the daily patterns of weather, such as levels of heavy precipitation or active-break events, may change in future monsoon seasons. We do not yet have a full understanding of the processes going on, and we know that climate models perform poorly in this critical yet challenging region where the ocean, atmosphere, lowlands and mountains all interacting

However… "This year's monsoon behaviour cannot yet be attributed to climate change as it is still within the observed natural variability of the monsoon," said Krishna Kumar Kanikicharla, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology. "Places that got more rain are receiving lower rainfall and vice versa. "But we also found that after some time the rainfall patterns go back to what they were before and slowly start changing again. It's a cyclic change that has been happening [for] years.“ – Bangladesh Metrological Society

Other impacts Increases in CO2 in the atmosphere are absorbed by the ocean increasing their acidity Increased photochemical smog Increased impacts of the urban Heat Island

However…. 2013 Number of US hurricanes less than yearly average Spring snow cover the 8th largest ever recorded indicating a colder period CA driest on record Widest ever tornado recorded in OK (2.6 miles wide) 2014 Earliest ever arrival of a hurricane in USA (July 2nd) Record rainfall in many states AK warmest year on record Mississippi, 10th coldest year on record