Global Warming and Climate Change

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Global Warming and Climate Change

Causes

  • The International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) agree that human industrial activity is to blame for the current upward trend in temperatures.
  • Increased volcanic activity.
  • Change in ocean currents.
  • Milankovitch cycle.

Effects

  • Increase in global temperature will cause sea levels to rise and will change the amount and pattern of precipitation, and an expansion of subtropical deserts.
  • Continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost and sea ice.
  • Frequent occurrence of extreme weather (e.g. flooding and storms).
  • Species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes.
  • Water availability and water stress could get worse, and there will be health impacts (e.g. diseases that survives in warmer environments).

Overall summary

Evidence: Changes to valley glaciers. Ice cores from Antarctica. Radiocarbon dating plants. Glacial deposits and landforms in non-glacial areas. Pollen grain evidence. Dendrochronology (tree rings). Changing sea levels. Arctic sea ice loss. Oxygen isotope record from sea bed sediments.

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