1. Global Climate Change: Effects

2. Weather Climate models predict weather patterns will change around the world with droughts becoming more intense, and severe storms or “superstorms” (including snowstorms) becoming more common.

7. Superstorm Sandy, 2012 285 total fatalities Over $70 billion in damages Hurricane Katrina, 2005 Over 1,800 total fatalities Over $100 billion in damages

8. Sea Level Sea levels rise due to melting ice caps Seas level has risen about 8 inches since 1880 Average annual sea level rise is increasing yearly Estimate vary widely, but the more conservative predictions place future rise between.5 to 1.5 meters (40-60 inches) by 2100.

10. Arctic & Antarctic Sea Ice

11. Earth at the height of the last ice age 20,000 years ago:

12. If the ice sheet covering Antarctica melted completely :

13. Climate Change Occurs Fastest in Polar Regions 1979-2007

14. Arctic Ice Pack Is Getting Smaller Ice pack expands over winter, contracts over summer, minimum in September

15. Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets Are Getting Thinner 19922012

16. Ecological Effects

17. Coral Reefs

18. Coral Bleaching Loss of symbiotic algae, triggered by high water temperatures

19. Ocean pH Coral skeletons are constructed primarily of carbonate As CO2 in the atmosphere increases, some of it dissolves in ocean water Decreases pH (makes the water more acidic) Coral skeletons collapse

20. Loss of corals to bleaching and “acidification” typically lead to major ecosystem shift Could we lose 95% of the Great Barrier Reef by 2050?

21. What other effects? Biome and species Distribution? Crops? Increased range of tolerance for diseases?