Global Warming and Temperature
Global warming represents a serious and imminent threat to the health of our environment. Ignoring the scientific data pointing to an ever-increasing warming trend is a dangerous idea when you take into account the fact that there are very serious consequences to not taking this issue seriously. If we continue to ignore the scientifically proven costs of our actions the damage to our environment will continue to pile up until the harm is irreversible.
Different areas that have already been notably affected by the steady warming trend include a rise in average temperatures around the world, increasingly severe weather occurrences, and rising sea levels. The main contributor to scientistsÂ’ concern over the global warming phenomenon comes from the rising temperatures around the world and their resulting effects on the rest of the environment.
Temperature Effects on Rising Sea Levels
Most people think that the rise in the sea levels exists simply because the air temperature has risen slightly and has starting melting the polar ice caps. While this has happened to a certain degree, a lot of the rise in water level can be contributed to the fact that as the water temperature also increases it expands and starts to take up more room. While this might not make a difference in a small body of water, the increased temperature of the ocean and subsequent expansion has created a notable rise in the water level.
Rising Temperature Effects on Severe Weather
Rising temperatures are also contributing to changing weather patterns around the world. While scientists do not necessarily believe that rising temperatures will create more weather occurrences than historically present, they do believe that the severity of the weather that does occur will get worse. This means that while we may not experience more hurricanes during the storm season, the hurricanes that do arise will be significantly more powerful and therefore more damaging that in the past. It is not only hurricanes that can increase in severity; scientists are predicting heavier rains in countries that experience monsoon seasons as well as more severe winter storms in colder regions of the world.
Effects on Animal and Plant Life
While scientists do not point to any dramatic problems arising from global warmingÂ’s impact on land animals and plants they do list several proven issues for aquatic creatures resulting from this warming trend. Many marine animals rely on slight temperature changes in the water to determine when they need to migrate or start their various reproductive processes. Changing water temperatures can preemptively trigger these innate senses and the results can be drastic. Entire species rely on these cycles of life that have developed after eons of evolution; these cycles can be seriously disrupted by the relatively fast paced changes in temperature that are occurring as a result of the increases in the mean global temperature.
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