Effects of Climate Change on the Environment

 

From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly slight shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and the environment.

The lake at Jökulsárlón, a glacial lagoon in Iceland, which has grown because of continued glacial melting

Credit:

Eskinder Debebe/UN Photo

Melting sea ice

The effects of climate change are most apparent in the world’s coldest regions—the poles. The Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, leading to the rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets, where a massive amount of water is stored. As sea ice melts, darker ocean waters that absorb more sunlight become exposed, creating a positive feedback loop that speeds up the melting process. In just 15 years, the Arctic could be entirely ice-free in the summer.

Sea level rise

Scientists predict that melting sea ice and glaciers, as well as the fact that warmer water expands in volume, could cause sea levels to rise as much as 3.61 feet by the end of the century, should we fail to curb emissions. The extent (and pace) of this change would devastate low-lying regions, including island nations and densely populated coastal cities like New York City and Mumbai.

But sea level rise at far lower levels is still costly, dangerous, and disruptive. Scientists predict that the United States will see a foot of sea level rise by 2050, which will regularly damage infrastructure, like roads, sewage treatment plants, and even power plants. Beaches that families have grown up visiting may be gone by the end of the century. Sea level rise also harms the environment, as encroaching seawater can both erode coastal ecosystems and invade freshwater inland aquifers, which we rely on for agriculture and drinking water. Saltwater incursion is already reshaping life in nations like Bangladesh, where one-quarter of the lands lie less than 7 feet above sea level.

A waterlogged road, caused by rainstorm and upstream flood discharge, in the Shaoguan, Guangdong Province of China, June 21, 2022

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pakistan not paying attention to environment crises.

  Pakistan is facing an acute water shortage, with experts saying the country could   run out of water by 2040   if authorities don't take long-term measures to deal with the problem. The recent  heat wave  has damaged crops and caused food shortages, and comes at a time when the Islamic nation has yet to fully recover from the  COVID pandemic  and its devastating toll on the public health sector and economy. Experts say that degradation of natural resources, soil erosion, deforestation, unbridled and unplanned urbanization, and contamination of ground water are some of the many serious issues that need immediate attention from the government. Tariq Banuri, a leading environmental expert, believes that the most crucial challenges for Pakistan include the  impacts of climate change  — floods, heat waves, drought, crop losses and diseases — whose frequency has increased rapidly over the past couple of decades. "Air pollution...
Read more

Environmental degradation

  Environment specialist Rahat Jabeen writes in a World Bank blog that every year Pakistan loses almost 27,000 hectares of natural forest area, explaining that almost three-quarters of the country's population use forest resources for a lack of alternative energy resources. Pakistan is among the top ten countries in the world that are vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, according to Mome Saleem, an environmental activist. "The agriculture land is being used for housing projects, which has resulted in the loss of trees and extreme heat waves. No attention is being paid to depleting water, which is already scarce," she added. "Pakistan must have at least 25% of the forest cover, but we are also not doing well on this front. The government is not preventing the cutting down of trees, which is happening on a massive scale. A dilapidated public transport system and low-quality fuel cause a significant rise in carbon, but unfortunately the government is not taking...
Read more

Economic toll

All this is taking a huge toll on the economy. According to a report by Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission, the annual monetary cost of environmental degradation alone is equivalent to around 4.3% of GDP. Hasan Abbas, an Islamabad-based expert, criticizes the authorities for  not paying proper attention to environmental problems . Saleem says that despite the fact that Pakistan ranks 142th on the environment performance indicator, the government has not taken concrete actions to deal with the challenges. Saleem believes the reason behind the country's negligence towards such existential crises is its fixation on economic growth. Abbas is of the opinion that Pakistan needs a green economic model. "Scrap all big hydro-power and coal-power projects. We need to switch to wind and  solar power , which are viable for countries like Pakistan," he suggested. Kishwar Zehra, a government official, said it is easier said than done. "Pakistan is already...
Read more