geography question!climate change!?

[viccay]

What are SIX impacts that will happen IF THE WORLD gets hotter by 2.5C???

and for each impact, could you narrow two more specific events that follow it?

FOR EXAMPLE:

the ice caps will melt faster ----
2 events =
1. shore line gets higher. 2.effects natural process of animals.

if you only know one or two. thats fine. THANKS!

[donfletcheryh]

1: warmer air means less cloud cover, so greater heat gain because we have less reflection from the top of clouds... with less cloud cover we get fewer but heavier rainfall events, not as well distributed, so we get localized flooding events and widespread drought events.
2: Oceans will absorb and retain less CO2, meaning that warming effects of CO2 will increase.
3: Many plants will shut down their photosynthesis during a longer time in the day, meaning less food production even when there is water, far less if there is drought or flooding.
4: If people do not make accommodations, we will see more people suffer and die during heat waves... Note, this is a conditional effect.

5: Eventually far northern areas may support life a bit better, and then,
Far southern areas, Antarctica, will continue to receive large amounts of snow from oceans covered with volumes of water vapor, but the temperature will continue to rise. Eventually the precipitation will be falling as rain on coastal Antarctica. At that point glacial melt will begin in earnest, severe cooling of the southern hemisphere, even large areas of the northern hemisphere. Oceans will be receiving volumes of fresh, cold water that stays on the ocean surface.

This event is a major reason it is described as climate change and not just global warming.

6: as the oceans become warmed up, they will support a major new period of cloud cover that goes over most of the world, causing cooling, and rain, changing to heavy snows in the north, and an ice age.

[mt_zion_crusader]

Increase in arable land=more food production and a higher capacity for earth to support life.

[joesisboom]

How about you do you own homework!


BTW, the last time this happened was back in the Cretaceous Period, the whole earth just can’t heat up at once. There is a thing called seasons, and when it is hot in the northern climates it gets cold in the southern climates.
If this is about global warming how about you look into the 1970’s and the global cooling craze. Same science, different results.
Also ask your teacher about weather station bias. See what they have to say about the placement of a weather station on a tar covered parking lot.
Here is a link
http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/how-not-to-measure-temperature-part-24/
Read it and then become a believer. Global warming is just a bunch of lies trying to scare you to buy something!

Donfletcheryh has a slight problem with his science.
1.Solar warming during the day only has a net effect if there is cloud cover at night. If you have ever spent any time in a desert you would know this. Hot air over humid condition’s low pressure (as a result of heat) = thundrstorms= rain.
2.It is algae and other biological agents that fix CO2 in the worlds oceans. That is why when you see films of deep sea exploration the ‘snow’ falling down in the picture is actually CACO3 (Calcium carbonate) that after time will turn into limestone. Also CACO3 is found in shells bones and marine organisms. Warmer water=increased activity=more CO2 absorbed.
3.Don’t know where he got this, see #1. Photosynthesis’ occurs during the daylight hours. That is why it is called Photosythesis. (How can you have drought and flooding at the same time? )

Here is a link
4.http://wattsupwiththat.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/how-not-to-measure-temperature-part-24/

Proves temperature bias. I will agree that we need to stop cutting down rainforests to produce bio-fuel.

5.Bad Science. Remember the seasons and why they happen? Ice shelves in Antarctica are in some places Four Miles deep right now The Ross shelf is growing as well as the Artic ice shelf are growing. The earth right now is in the winter phase up in the Northern hemisphere and summer down in the southern hemisphere, Both Places the Artic and Antarctic are Classified as Deserts http://athropolis.com/arctic-facts/fact-desert.htm and news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0226_030226_McMurdo.html - 27k –

6.Cloud cover does not equal cold just look the planets Venus and Mercury. Which one is hotter? Which one has more cloud cover? Solar radiation is a key component in the manufacturing of clouds as is water, Most of the oceans right now are exposed to massive amounts of sunlight and the world is not covered in clouds. Could it be you also need a change in barometric pressure to form clouds? Maybe

I hate bad science and it would look bad on your homework. A 2.5 degree change would have to be seasonal average and with that average change the overall affect on the planet would on the average be the same. You just can’t say it would do anything because of the way the terrestrial and oceans are located. As for global flooding. Well there is a rift in Africa that could easily swallow any massive change in the worlds oceans and it is starting already.
Here is that link.
www.geolor.com/East_African_Rift_Valley_geolor.htm - 15k -

Ken I dropped my National Geographic subscription after 40 yeas once I realized that they use bias in their reporting. Remember the global cooling in the 1970's NGM was into that. As for the tempature bias that the GW crowd always says is negated after placement of the "parking lot" you seem to forget that units that are properly placed according to the national weather standards do not show a tempature increase. Also in meterlogical terms Cities are called "Heat Sinks" due to the amount of heat produced by the roads, HVAC, cars, and grandpa cooking burgers over the grill.
Your six degrees is hype based on media. The deserts are not getting any hotter and the ice shelves are growing very large this winter.

[ken]

joesis - when you're dealing with temperature anomalies (vs. absolute measurements) it doesn't matter if a station is in a parking lot or not. The blacktop influence is fixed once it was placed there. All measured warming thereafter is valid. And all the temperature datasets apply appropriate corrections, if needed, by comparing regional rural instruments with urban ones.

As for impacts, you might find some useful information on the impacts at various warming levels here:
http://www.marklynas.org/sixdegrees

It's a popular book/movie, so it's not at the same level of credibility as a scientific journal, but it's quite reasonable and has gotten pretty much thumbs-up from actual climate scientists on it's accuracy.

[Bob]

Intensive agriculture will be severely damaged. Changing precipitation and temperature patterns will make crops grow (or not grow) in different places.

In rich countries it will cost huge sums of money to adapt. In poor ones there will be starvation. Desperate people fleeing across national borders will start wars.