A Changing Climate Means a Changing Environment

The Effects of Climate Change Give Rise to Environmental Degradation

© Laurence O'Sullivan

Jan 27, 2009

The continuing rise in atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide is causing an increase in the amount of heat trapped by the atmosphere. As a result of this extra heat the environmental effects of a changing climate are becoming obvious. From loss of Polar ice cover to retreating mountaintop glaciers, from changes in the marine environment to land based environmental changes, the global environment is changing.

Changing Marine Environment

Outside of the atmosphere, the oceans are the largest part of the Earth’s environment, providing food for the planet’s inhabitants, regulating temperature and climatic conditions for most of the land and acting as a carbon sink for the whole world. Biodiversity damage to the oceans is one of the clearest signs of the environmental effects of climate change.

• The report “Acid Test”, published by the environmental group Oceana, states “The acidity of the ocean surface has increased 30 percent since before the Industrial Revolution. If current trends continue, it could rise by another 100 percent by the end of this century, exceeding the levels of the past 20 million years”.

• The “Living Planet Report 2008”, published by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) states “The marine index shows an average overall decline of 14 per cent between 1970 and 2005. Rising sea temperatures, destructive fishing methods and pollution are responsible for some of the decline in marine life”.

• “The Implications of Climate Change for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef”, published by the WWF, points out that “Coral reefs have shown some of the most dramatic impacts of climate change, with the advent of world-wide coral bleaching events from 1979 as the thermal threshold of many of the world’s coral populations was exceeded”.

Changing Polar Environment

• Impacts of a Warming Arctic, by Susan Hassol, published by Cambridge University Press in 2004 states that “Reductions in sea ice will drastically shrink marine habitats for polar bears, ice-inhabiting seals, and some seabirds, pushing species toward extinction”.

• A new study, titled “Warming of the Antarctic Ice-sheet Surface” by E. Steig et al. and published in Vol. 457 of the journal Science in January 2009 show “that significant warming extends well beyond the Antarctic Peninsula to cover most of West Antarctica, an area of warming much larger than previously reported. West Antarctic warming exceeds 0.1 °C per decade over the past 50 years”.

• A report carried by Reuters titled “Antarctic Ice Shelf set to Collapse”, by Alister Doyle on January 20, 2009 states that “A huge Antarctic ice shelf is on the brink of collapse with just a sliver of ice holding it in place, the latest victim of global warming that is altering maps of the frozen continent”.

Changing Land Based Environment

• Land based glaciers, on which millions of people depend for drinking water are disappearing due to global warming. Dr. Zemp of the World Glacier Monitoring Service is quoted in the UK Daily Telegraph article of January 19, 2009, entitled “Glaciers Melting Due to Climate Change” as saying that "If temperatures continue to increase, glaciers will continue to retreat to higher elevations where they can be sustained, but if the topography does not allow them to retreat to higher altitudes they will disappear."

• Africa: Atlas of our Changing Environment, published by the United Nations Environment Programme in July 2008 documents the many environmental problems that Africa has, including desertification, deforestation and water scarcity and states that “Climate change is emerging as a driving force behind many of these problems and is likely to intensify the already dramatic transformations taking place across the continent”.

Glacier Retreat

Arctic Sea Ice Retreat

Changing Marine Environment

Antarctic Ice Calving

Dissapearing African Lake

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