What are the negative effects of global warming on climate, animals, and on plants?

Question

Please! I really need some help on these questions, it counts for my grade. Please don't tell me to go to a search engine to find this information, because I am running out of time for this assignment. Thanks for visting.

Answer 1

h**l yeah procrastination) anyway the negative effects are that (animals) they animals aren't used to the sudden temp. change and (climate) these 13 deg. changes are melting the ice caps (plants) and plants will die too if the temp is diff.

hope it helps, i just woke up =/

Answer 2

one of the most significant and dangerous effects of global warming that links all these aspects is its effect on diseases and disease carrying vectors.

global warming triggers climate change; changes in season lengths, average annual temperatures and rainfall distribution.

warmer and wetter climates create optimal breeding conditions for disease carrying vectors such as mosquitoes. Warmer temperatures in regions that are normally cold, or during normally cooler seasons, means disease carriers can spread faster and more easily.

and that obviously poses a direct risk to the health and safety of animals, crops and humans..

Answer 3

Maybe you should have looked sooner?

Global warming, if you believe it exists, has the potential to cause the ocean levels to rise both in volume and in temperature.  The former will threaten shorelines, while the latter threatens the livelihood of animals that have become accustomed to a certain temperature range.

Answer 4

Health

[edit] Direct effects of temperature rise

The most direct effect of climate change on humans might be the impacts of hotter temperatures themselves. Extreme high temperatures increase the number of people who die on a given day for many reasons: people with heart problems are vulnerable because one's cardiovascular system must work harder to keep the body cool during hot weather, heat exhaustion, and some respiratory problems increase. Global warming could mean more cardiovascular diseases, doctors warn[130]. Higher air temperature also increase the concentration of ozone at ground level. In the lower atmosphere, ozone is a harmful pollutant. It damages lung tissues and causes problems for people with asthma and other lung diseases. [131]

Rising temperatures have two opposing direct effects on mortality: higher temperatures in winter reduce deaths from cold; higher temperatures in summer increase heat-related deaths.

The net local impact of these two direct effects depends on the current climate in a particular area. Palutikof et al calculate that in England and Wales for a 1 °C temperature rise the reduced deaths from cold outweigh the increased deaths from heat, resulting in a reduction in annual average mortality of 7000,[132] and a government report shows decreased mortality due to recent warming and predicts increased mortality due to future warming in the United Kingdom.[133] The European heat wave of 2003 killed 22,000–35,000 people, based on normal mortality rates[134]. Peter A. Stott from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research estimated with 90% confidence that past human influence on climate was responsible for at least half the risk of the 2003 European summer heat-wave.[135] In the United States, more than 1000 people die from the cold each year, while twice that number die from the heat.[136] The 2006 United States heat wave has killed 139 people in California as of 29 July 2006. Deaths of livestock have not been well-documented. Fresno, in the central California valley, had six consecutive days of 110 degree-plus Fahrenheit temperatures. [137]

[edit] Spread of disease

    See also: Tropical disease

Global warming is expected to extend the favourable zones for vectors conveying infectious disease such as dengue fever[138] and malaria[139][140] In poorer countries, this may simply lead to higher incidence of such diseases. In richer countries, where such diseases have been eliminated or kept in check by vaccination, draining swamps and using pesticides, the consequences may be felt more in economic than health terms. The World Health Organisation (WHO) says global warming could lead to a major increase in insect-borne diseases in Britain and Europe, as northern Europe becomes warmer, ticks - which carry encephalitis and lyme disease - and sandflies - which carry visceral leishmaniasis - are likely to move in. [141]

Oceans

The world’s oceans soak up much of the carbon dioxide produced by living organisms, either as dissolved gas, or in the skeletons of tiny marine creatures that fall to the bottom to become chalk or limestone. Oceans currently absorb about one tonne of CO2 per person per year. It is estimated that the oceans have absorbed around half of all CO2 generated by human activities since 1800 (120,000,000,000 tonnes or 120 petagrams of carbon) [52].

But in water, carbon dioxide becomes a weak carbonic acid, and the increase in the greenhouse gas since the industrial revolution has already lowered the average pH (the laboratory measure of acidity) of seawater by 0.1 units, to 8.2. Predicted emissions could lower it by a further 0.5 by 2100, to a level not seen for millions of years.[53]

There are concerns that increasing acidification could have a particularly detrimental effect on corals [54] (16% of the world's coral reefs have died from bleaching caused by warm water in 1998, [55] which coincidentally was the warmest year ever recorded [56]) and other marine organisms with calcium carbonate shells [57].

Effects on agriculture

For some time it was hoped that a positive effect of global warming would be increased agricultural yields, because of the role of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis, especially in preventing photorespiration, which is responsible for significant destruction of several crops. In Iceland, rising temperatures have made possible the widespread sowing of barley, which was untenable twenty years ago. Some of the warming is due to a local (possibly temporary) effect via ocean currents from the Caribbean, which has also affected fish stocks.[86]

While local benefits may be felt in some regions (such as Siberia), recent evidence is that global yields will be negatively affected. "Rising atmospheric temperatures, longer droughts and side-effects of both, such as higher levels of ground-level ozone gas, are likely to bring about a substantial reduction in crop yields in the coming decades, large-scale experiments have shown" [87].

Moreover, the region likely to be worst affected is Africa, both because its geography makes it particularly vulnerable, and because seventy per cent of the population rely on rain-fed agriculture for their livelihoods. Tanzania's official report on climate change suggests that the areas that usually get two rainfalls in the year will probably get more, and those that get only one rainy season will get far less. The net result is expected to be that 33% less maize—the country's staple crop—will be grown.[88]

Climate change may be one of the causes of the Darfur conflict. The combination of decades of drought, desertification and overpopulation are among the causes of the conflict, because the Arab Baggara nomads searching for water have to take their livestock further south, to land mainly occupied by farming peoples.

Plants

Unchecked global warming could affect most terrestrial ecoregions. Increasing global temperature means that ecosystems will change; some species are being forced out of their habitats (possibly to extinction) because of changing conditions, while others are flourishing. Secondary effects of global warming, such as lessened snow cover, rising sea levels, and weather changes, may influence not only human activities but also the ecosystem. Studying the association between Earth climate and extinctions over the past 520 million years, scientists from University of York write, "The global temperatures predicted for the coming centuries may trigger a new ‘mass extinction event’, where over 50 per cent of animal and plant species would be wiped out."[105]

Many of the species at risk are Arctic and Antarctic fauna such as polar bears[106] and emperor penguins[107]. In the Arctic, the waters of Hudson Bay are ice-free for three weeks longer than they were thirty years ago, affecting polar bears, which prefer to hunt on sea ice.[108]. Species that rely on cold weather conditions such as gyrfalcons, and snowy owls that prey on lemmings that use the cold winter to their advantage may be hit hard.[109] [110]Marine invertebrates enjoy peak growth at the temperatures they have adapted to, regardless of how cold these may be, and cold-blooded animals found at greater latitudes and altitudes generally grow faster to compensate for the short growing season.[111] Warmer-than-ideal conditions result in higher metabolism and consequent reductions in body size despite increased foraging, which in turn elevates the risk of predation. Indeed, even a slight increase in temperature during development impairs growth efficiency and survival rate in rainbow trout.[112]

Rising temperatures are beginning to have a noticeable impact on birds[113], and butterflies have shifted their ranges northward by 200 km in Europe and North America. Plants lag behind, and larger animals' migration is slowed down by cities and highways. In Britain, spring butterflies are appearing an average of 6 days earlier than two decades ago [114].

A 2002 article in Nature[115] surveyed the scientific literature to find recent changes in range or seasonal behaviour by plant and animal species. Of species showing recent change, 4 out of 5 shifted their ranges towards the poles or higher altitudes, creating "refugee species". Frogs were breeding, flowers blossoming and birds migrating an average 2.3 days earlier each decade; butterflies, birds and plants moving towards the poles by 6.1 km per decade. A 2005 study concludes human activity is the cause of the temperature rise and resultant changing species behaviour, and links these effects with the predictions of climate models to provide validation for them [116]. Scientists have observed that Antarctic hair grass is colonizing areas of Antarctica where previously their survival range was limited. [117]

Mechanistic studies have documented extinctions due to recent climate change: McLaughlin et al. documented two populations of Bay checkerspot butterfly being threatened by precipitation change.[118] Parmesan states, "Few studies have been conducted at a scale that encompasses an entire species"[119] and McLaughlin et al. agreed "few mechanistic studies have linked extinctions to recent climate change."[118] Daniel Botkin and other authors in one study believe that projected rates of extinction are overestimated.[120]

Many species of freshwater and saltwater plants and animals are dependent on glacier-fed waters to ensure a cold water habitat that they have adapted to. Some species of freshwater fish need cold water to survive and to reproduce, and this is especially true with Salmon and Cutthroat trout. Reduced glacier runoff can lead to insufficient stream flow to allow these species to thrive. Ocean krill, a cornerstone species, prefer cold water and are the primary food source for aquatic mammals such as the Blue whale[121]. Alterations to the ocean currents, due to incre