What are greenhouse gases doing to our planet?
Global warming is creating excess amounts of carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is going into our atmosphere and is creating a blanket. This blanket of CO2 keeps the suns heat inside earth. This means that the temperatures will rise with catastrophic effects. Even if carbon emissions are completely stopped overnight the temperature will rise at least 1 degree. This may not sound like much but this will change our world drastically.
Effects that are already happening:
Ice is melting worldwide, especially in the poles. This means that whole ecosystems will be destroyed Ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting. Glaciers are also melting at a rapid rate.
Warm summers in Alaska means that spruce bark beetles have breed in great amounts and have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
Butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
Effects that may happen in the future:
Hurricanes and other storms, like cyclones, are likely to become stronger.
Plants and species that depend on one another may become out of. For ex example plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
Floods and droughts will become more common. In Ethiopia rainfall could decline by 10%, this could be disastrous as the already have frequent droughts.
Floods and droughts will become more common.
Less fresh water will be available. For example; The Quelccaya ice cap in Peru will have completely melted by 2100, leaving people that rely on it for water will be forced to find another source or leave.Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.
Scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid 1980's, polar bears have become skinnier as they have less ice to fish and live on.
Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He believes that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.
This information shows for a grim future for planet Earth, but it can all be prevented if we just save energy and use renewable sources.
Click on the link below to find out how.
Effects that are already happening:
Ice is melting worldwide, especially in the poles. This means that whole ecosystems will be destroyed Ice sheets in Greenland and West Antarctica are melting. Glaciers are also melting at a rapid rate.
Warm summers in Alaska means that spruce bark beetles have breed in great amounts and have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.
Butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
Effects that may happen in the future:
Hurricanes and other storms, like cyclones, are likely to become stronger.
Plants and species that depend on one another may become out of. For ex example plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
Floods and droughts will become more common. In Ethiopia rainfall could decline by 10%, this could be disastrous as the already have frequent droughts.
Floods and droughts will become more common.
Less fresh water will be available. For example; The Quelccaya ice cap in Peru will have completely melted by 2100, leaving people that rely on it for water will be forced to find another source or leave.Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.
Scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid 1980's, polar bears have become skinnier as they have less ice to fish and live on.
Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay. He believes that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.
This information shows for a grim future for planet Earth, but it can all be prevented if we just save energy and use renewable sources.
Click on the link below to find out how.