Possible effects of climate change

Essay by TammyMeadowsUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, October 2006

download word file, 1 pages 3.0

The possible effects of climate change resulting from warmer weather is catastrophic an many ways, the effects on human health, crop yields, forest productivity, plastic and paints, and plankton productivity:

Human health - Warming favors the spread of disease outbreaks such as malaria, west Nile and Lyme disease. Warmer weather will cause droughts which in-turn cause more dust and smog, this will cause respitory and cardiac conditions. The end result will be a massive loss of human lives.

Crop yields - Warmer weather will cause droughts and crop fields will soon wilt and die off. There will be crop losses due to a rise in pest, pathogens and weeds. More droughts will affect crop yield causing higher food prices and political instability.

Forest productivity - More pest infestations, wild fires, enormous scale of diebacks of trees. There will be a depletion of Earth's carbon cycle. The large scale of fires will release carbon forces adding to global warming and altering essential forest soils.

Plastic and Paints - Degradation on materials such as paints and plastics. The color of paints will spoil and crack. Plastics will be limited to their lifetime service from being outdoors due to partial ozone depletion that will accelerate the photodegradation rates of plastic materials.

Plankton productivity - The entire food chain could collapse - An upward flow of nutrients that sustains the small sea plants will diminish as earth heats up. The plankton is the entire food foundation for ocean life. Plankton diminishes the ocean life diminishes.