Jennifer+Williams

WWF,. (n.d.). //Climate: the changes & impacts of global warming//. Retrieved from http://www.panda.org > Cities like Athens, Chicago, Adelaide, Milan, New Delhi and Paris have sweltered under heatwaves. The 2003 summer heatwave in Europe killed 14,800 people in France alone. > Extreme droughts have become regular features. Prolonged drought in Australia has continued for years with very few interruptions. > Major floods that used to happen only once in 100 years now take place every 10 or 20 years. > Houses can be destroyed, lives can be ruined, and wildlife threatened. > Rising sea levels means that tropical cyclones and other extreme storms could result in much greater storm surges. > Average global temperatures are expected to rise between 1.4 and 5.8°C by the end of the > Nearly all glaciers surveyed in Alaska are melting > > China- Bamboo, the panda’s staple diet, is also part of a delicate ecosystem that could be affected by the changes caused by global warming. rice, d. (2009, August 21). //Climate change means more heavy rain//. Retrieved from @http://www.stopglobalwarming.org The computer model used in the study predict that areas such as North America can expect a significant increase in heavy rain. 36.The study predicts that extreme events will increase by about 6% for every 1.8 degree rise in global temperature.
 * 1) Sea ice in the Arctic has declined drastically in the last 30 years and the Northwest Passage was ice free for the first time in history in 2007
 * 2) Drunken forests where the trees fall over as the ground beneath them thaws, has become a more common site.
 * 3) Beyond the visible impact of thawing ground is the threat posed by the carbon and methane that has been locked in the permafrost and beneath the cold arctic waters (in subsea permafrost) for millions of years.
 * 4) As the temperatures warm, these greenhouse gases are increasingly released into the atmosphere and cause further warming.
 * 5) this warming in turn releases more greenhouse gas, and unless it is stopped it will reach a tipping point.
 * 6) Once a tipping point has been reached a feedback process takes over and it would be near impossible to slow it down.
 * 7) Snow sitting on top of the sea ice reflects about 90% of the sun's energy whereas open water absorbs about 94%. So as the open water of the ocean absorbs more heat and causes more sea ice to disappear it exposes even more water and another feedback process has begun.
 * 8) Walrus are having a harder time as they rely on sea ice floating close to land on which to haul out.
 * 9) As this sea ice disappears some baby walrus's drown at sea and others are crushed to death during stampedes on crowded beaches.
 * 10) The Emperor penguin colony at Terra Adelie in Antarctica could decline by 95% before the end of the century, if sea-ice continues to decline at the current rate. This would place the population at serious risk of extinction.
 * 11) Heatwaves
 * 1) Droughts
 * 1) Floods
 * 1) Tropical Cyclones / Hurricanes
 * 1) 21st century.
 * 2) For example, the meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet could be triggered at a temperature increase of 2-3°C
 * 3) Even in the least damaging scenario, say a 1°C rise along with an increase in rain and snow, glaciers will continue to lose volume over the coming century.
 * 4) Continued and widespread melting of glaciers during this century will lead to floods and water shortages for millions of people
 * 5) As sea levels rise, coastal communities and habitats will be destroyed.
 * 1) Half of the water flowing into the oceans, globally, due to melting glaciers, is a result of melting in Alaska.
 * 2) 10 to 20% of glacier ice in the Alps was lost in less than two decades.
 * 3) Half the volume of Europe's Alpine glaciers has disappeared since 1850
 * 4) Tropical glaciers in Africa have decreased in area by 60% to 70% on average since the early 1900s.
 * 5) Greenland alone contains 12% of the world's ice; entire portions of the Greenland ice sheet appear to be sliding towards the sea.
 * 6) Canada-Experts believe that the Arctic sea ice is melting at a rate of 9% per decade, endangering the polar bear’s habitat and existence.
 * 7) South America-Sea turtles lay their eggs on Brazilian beaches, many of which are threatened by rising sea levels.
 * 8) America-Since warming waters contain less plankton for whales to feed on, the availability of food due to climate fluctuations is also becoming an increasing cause of mortality.
 * 1) Indonesia-Its last remaining strongholds in the rainforests of Indonesia are being threatened by a range of pressures, including climate change, putting the animal at risk of extinction within a few decades.
 * 2) Africa-In Africa, elephants face a range of threats including shrinking living space, which brings them more frequently into conflict with people.
 * 3) Australia-Since frogs rely on water to breed, any reduction or change in rainfall could reduce frog reproduction.
 * 4) India-The projected rise in sea levels could cause these living spaces of the tiger to vanish altogether.(Only 6,000 or so tigers remain in the wild)
 * 5) Drought, floods, deforestation and poor agricultural prospects drove some 25 million environmental refugees off the land into already crowded shanty towns.
 * 1) Climate change will lead to an increase in heavy rainfall events across most of the world.

37.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change a global temperature increase of anywhere from 2 to 11 degrees is expected by 2100. 38.Co-author Paul O'Gorman of MIT says, the primary reason for the precipitation increase is that warmer air can retain more water vapor than cooler air. So as the climate heats up, "there will be more vapor in the atmosphere, which will lead to an increase in precipitation extremes. 39.Some of the most distinguished dangers of the additional rainfall include flooding and soil erosion. //Global warming fast facts//. (2007, june 14). Retrieved from @http://news.nationalgeographic.com

40.Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit 41. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years 42.The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850. 43.The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average. 44. Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss. 45.Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting,for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus when there was 150 in 1910. 46.Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst die-off in response to stress ever recorded, with some areas seeing die off rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise. 47. An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change experts. 48. Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface. 49. Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it. 50. A follow-up report by the IPCC released in April 2007 warned that global warming could lead to large-scale food and water shortages and have catastrophic effects on wildlife. 51. Sea level could rise between 7 and 23 inches,when just rises of just 4 inches can flood many South Seas islands and swamp large parts of Southeast Asia. 52. Strong hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, wildfires, and other natural disasters may become commonplace in many parts of the world. 53. More than a million species face extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems, and acidifying oceans. 54. The ocean's circulation system, known as the ocean conveyor belt, could be permanently altered, causing a mini-ice age in Western Europe and other rapid changes. 55. Rising temperatures could release more greenhouse gases by unlocking methane in permafrost and undersea deposits, freeing carbon trapped in sea ice, and causing increased evaporation of water. 56. The gases that can stay in the atmosphere for at least fifty years and up to centuries are building up pasy the Earth's capacity to remove them and, in effect, creating an extra-thick heat "blanket" around the Earth. 57. The result is that the world has heated up by about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century and it has heated up more intensely over the past 2 decades. 58.  The atmospheric buildup of CO 2  and other greenhouse gases is the result of human activities like the burning of fossil fuels. 59. Some of this heat is absorbed by gases in the atmosphere,like carbon dioxide CO2, water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and  halocarbons. 60. All recent indicators show that sea ice in the Arctic is melting at an alarming rate.