What are the causes of iceberg melting? Is it related to human destruction? What's the relationship? Urgent! It's best to send it within 10 minutes, thank you!
To put it further, it will lead to the next ice age.
Consequences of global warming
1. Impact on climate
As temperatures rise, floods, droughts, fires and heat waves are expected to hit some areas The incidence rate will also increase.
——IPCC 1995 Report
If this situation continues and develops further, the entire territory of some countries will eventually become unfit for human habitation.
——Lamb
No one can say exactly how serious the harm caused by releasing more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere will be in the future? Scientists are estimating the harm caused by climate change. According to the current level of technology, the mechanism of the formation and decomposition of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will not be elucidated until 2004, so that we can discover how the greenhouse effect is generated. It will not be until 2006 that the rise in sea levels caused by the warming of the earth can be accurately predicted. However, we will have to wait until 2050 to truly understand all this. Obviously, neither scientists nor politicians will wait for further results before taking preventive measures. The current observations and research results should be made known to the public, so that people will not have to swallow the bitter consequences 50 years later.
The greenhouse effect has been at work since the earth was formed. Without the greenhouse effect, the earth's surface would be extremely cold, the temperature would drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius, the oceans would freeze, and life would not be formed. Therefore, what we are facing is not the issue of whether there is a greenhouse effect, but the issue of humans emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, causing drastic changes in the greenhouse effect and the earth's climate.
What impact will the greenhouse effect have? Academician Huang Ronghui said: "Due to the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has increased. Due to the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide and other gases, in the past 100 years, the global average surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.3- -0.6 degrees Celsius, and it is estimated that it will increase by another 1-3 degrees Celsius by 2030."
When the world's average temperature increases by 1 degree Celsius, huge changes will occur: sea levels will rise, mountain glaciers will retreat, and snow-covered areas will shrink. As global temperatures rise, there will be uneven precipitation, with some areas experiencing more precipitation and others experiencing less precipitation. For example, the Sahel region in West Africa has experienced serious drought since 1965; in North my country, precipitation has been decreasing year after year since 1965. Compared with the 1950s, precipitation in North China has decreased by 1/3, and water resources have decreased by 1/3. /2; The area affected by drought in my country is about 400 million acres every year. In normal years, the country's irrigation areas are short of 30 billion cubic meters of water every year, and cities are short of 6 billion cubic meters of water.
Due to rising temperatures, global sea levels have risen at a rate of 1 to 2 millimeters per year in the past 100 years. It is expected that sea levels will continue to rise by 30 to 50 centimeters by 2050, which will inundate There is a large amount of low-lying land along the coast; in addition, climate change has intensified climate disasters such as droughts, floods, and low temperatures, causing economic losses of tens of billions of dollars around the world every year.
Therefore, global climate change prediction has not only become an important international scientific research topic, but also has become the basis for our government to formulate policies and make economic construction decisions. Especially at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in June 1992, many countries signed the "Framework Convention on Climate Change", and the first conference of the parties was held in March 1995. This marked the global climate change issue has become a It is an important scientific and related environmental policy issue that our government must consider in order to promote the sustainable development of the country's society and economy.
Climate analysis as early as 1987 showed that increasing famine in African countries such as Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia was consistent with dramatic changes in rainfall patterns. According to an AFP reporter's report on April 27, the Ogaden region in southern Ethiopia is a semi-deserted area where about 3 million nomads live. It has not rained in three years, and cattle, sheep, and even camels have died of thirst. The drought of 1984-1985 claimed nearly 1 million lives. Now, 8 million people are waiting for emergency food assistance. After comparing a century and a half of climate measurement data with the dramatic changes in precipitation patterns in recent decades, the conclusion is that "before the 1950s, there was little change in precipitation. By the 1950s, after a relatively rainy period, After a period of dramatic reductions in rainfall in North Africa and the Middle East, droughts continued and became more frequent over the past 40 years, while "precipitation increased significantly in Europe" over the same period. This 40-year temperature trend is one of the factors causing repeated and prolonged famines. Researchers worry that this trend is just an early result of global warming.
Data from the Spanish Meteorological Service show that the beginning of 2000 was the driest winter in Spain since 1947. It is impossible for a large number of planting areas to recover and the situation will worsen in the coming months. Reservoirs are only 50% full, and 80% of water consumption is used for agriculture. In fact, 1 in 7 Europeans currently cannot drink tap water.
UNESCO said: "The lack of water will become one of the major problems in the next 25 years, so current habits that lead to the degradation of ecosystems must be changed immediately."
Climate expert Lamb responded to the above-mentioned Sacher "If this situation continues and develops further, the entire territory of some countries will eventually become uninhabitable for humans," he said. Although climatologists are still reluctant to clearly link global warming to these disasters, this does not affect the inevitable conclusion that no matter what the cause of climate change is, there are still some problems in a modern and wealthy global civilization. Vulnerable societies are suffering enormously, in part because of changing climate patterns. For now, the rest of the world can offer no real solutions other than tinkering with those who are suffering. Moreover, although almost the entire scientific community around the world is clamoring that the current model of human civilization is causing dramatic changes in planetary climate conditions, the consequences are likely to be many times greater than what humans have experienced in the past 10,000 years. We are not sure about the disaster in the making. The main cause remains unsolved.
In fact, this result has now been clearly felt, as the IPCC 1995 report said: "As temperatures rise, the incidence of floods, droughts, fires and heat wave shocks in some areas is also expected to increase. ".
2. Melting glaciers
Even if the glacial melt water dries up in 60 to 100 years, the scope of this ecological disaster will be shocking.
——Sayed Hasnain
If global warming is not controlled, nearly 20% of Bangladesh may be flooded within 15 years.
——Saeeda Chowdhury
1998 was the warmest year on record in the history of the eastern United States. In this year, the Antarctic ice sheet of 2,850 square kilometers fell from The Wilkins and Larson ice shelves split off. Other parts of the Antarctic ice sheet are also retreating.
Mountain Carstanz in Indonesia is the only mountain in hot Asia with a permanent snow cover on the top. But in recent centuries, the glaciers on Mount Carstanz have shrunk significantly, causing the snowline to rise by about 100 meters.
Except for the ice caps in the polar regions, Himalayan glaciers are the largest component of the world's ice mass, with approximately 15,000 glaciers in total. The meltwater from these glaciers is the source of water for the world's oldest rivers, the Indus and Ganges. If the waters of these two great rivers dried up or were reduced to a trickle, the basic building blocks of agricultural society would be completely destroyed.
In recent years, glaciers in the Alps from Patagonia to Switzerland have been observed melting due to emissions of "greenhouse" gases and what is widely believed to be the greenhouse effect. In South Asia, the question is not whether glaciers are melting, but how fast? While many of the ill effects of global warming may not become severe until the end of the 21st century, melting glaciers in places like Nepal, India, Pakistan, China and Bhutan could cause problems soon.
A research report by the International Commission on Snow and Ice (ICSI) states: "The glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating faster than anywhere else in the world. If the current rate of melting continues, these glaciers will be The possibility of disappearing before the year is very high." Said Hasnain, head of the International Snow and Ice Commission, said: "Even if the glacier melt water dries up in 60 to 100 years, the scope of the impact of this ecological disaster will be shocking."
The melting of glaciers in the eastern Himalayas, located in the Ganges River Basin, is the most severe, and the glaciers located on the "roof of the world" from Bhutan to Kashmir are retreating the fastest. Take the 3-mile-long Barnak Glacier, one of many formed when the Indian subcontinent collided with Asia 40 to 50 million years ago. It has retreated by half since 1990. mile. After the harsh subarctic winter of 1997, scientists had expected the glacier to expand, but instead it retreated further in the summer of 1998.
Sayida Chaudhry, Minister of Environment and Forests of Bangladesh, pointed out: "If global warming trends are not controlled, nearly 20% of Bangladesh may be flooded within 15 years."< /p>
Ruby Ren, a researcher and climate expert at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state, found that the snowfall in the mountains of Oregon and Washington from late November to late March will change to rain, causing today's 900 The average snow line in Domi rises to 1250 meters. This would not only turn ski resorts in the central Cascades into mud, but would also cause huge disasters for farmers on the dry east side of the mountains, who rely on the spring snowmelt water flowing down from the mountains to irrigate their crops. Apple trees and wheat.
3. Diseases are rampant
As the climate warms, some tropical diseases will spread to cooler areas. The environment at higher altitudes is also increasingly conducive to the survival of mosquitoes and microorganisms such as the Plasmodium parasites they carry.
——Paul. Cooper Stein
Paul. Plants also move with the snowline, Hubstein noticed, and plants on mountain peaks around the world are moving up. As mountain tops warm, conditions at higher altitudes become increasingly hospitable to mosquitoes and the microorganisms they carry, such as the malaria parasite.
In Rwanda after 1985. Zambia. Ethiopia. Infectious malaria has occurred in high altitude areas of Swatland and Madagascar. A 1988 outbreak in the highlands of Madagascar killed more than 100,000 people. Owen, a climate impact expert at Greenpeace International. Jackson believes that a synergistic combination of warming and rainfall, coupled with increasing resistance to antibiotics, is driving the epidemic.
Climate is a key factor in the upward and outward spread of diseases like malaria, yellow fever and dengue fever, because it affects both where disease-carrying insects settle and how contagious the disease is. itself. Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit malaria usually require an average temperature of above 15.5 degrees Celsius to survive in winter. The activity and infection of malaria parasites require 17.75 degrees Celsius. If the average temperature increases by 2.5 to 3.75-17.75 degrees Celsius, dengue fever will occur. The speed of transmission is doubled. Also migrating at the same time are the Aedes mosquitoes that carry yellow fever and dengue fever. They were previously limited to areas around 35 degrees latitude on both sides of the equator. Global warming will expand its range to New York, Chicago, Beijing, Istanbul and Madrid.
This is not sensational. In July 1999, West Nile virus first landed in the Western Hemisphere and attacked New York City. It shocked citizens and medical and health organizations. The authorities used helicopters and ground personnel to conduct large-scale operations in the city. Spray insecticides to eliminate pests and diseases. Epidemiologists and health experts who have long tracked the disease blame the outbreak on the impact of large-scale, long-term changes in global climate on local climate. Experts are increasingly concerned about the impact of a warmer planet on human health, and are warning that lessons should be learned from new disease outbreaks and their links to climate change. According to reports in January 2000, after an influenza epidemic appeared in California and Arizona on the west coast, the disease has spread to 19 states, including New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and the capital Washington. The last flu was caused by a virus called "Sydney Influenza A". The death rate from influenza is on the rise in the United States. According to data from 122 U.S. cities in a week, the number of people who died from influenza or pneumonia Accounting for 7.8% of the total deaths. This is nothing less than a warning to the world's major carbon dioxide emitters in 2000.
West Nile virus, malaria, yellow fever and other tropical infectious diseases have broken out in Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, California and Colorado in the United States since 1987, which has been repeatedly confirmed Experts have scientifically concluded that as the climate warms, some tropical diseases will spread to cooler areas.
4. The New Ice Age
The current species extinction rate has "reached half the level of a huge extinction event in geological history."
——David Tillman
Another study on global warming found even more surprising results, driven by melting Arctic ice sheets, increased rainfall, and wind patterns. As the climate continues to change, large amounts of fresh water are flowing into the North Atlantic, causing damage to the Gulf Stream. It is these warm currents that bring warm surface water from the Caribbean to northwest Europe and create a warm climate in Europe. Once the Mexican Gulf Stream is cut off due to global warming, the temperature in northwest Europe may drop by as much as 5-8 degrees Celsius, and Europe may face a new ice age!
The study was carried out by the Scottish Marine Observatory in Aberdeen, which analyzed more than 17,000 seawater salinity measurements since 1893 from the Sea Islands to the Faroe Islands. derived. Over the past 20 years, the deep ocean water flowing to the south has become less salinous and less concentrated, indicating that more freshwater is flowing into the region from the northern Atlantic Ocean. The new data provide the first full proof of a computer model designed by German scientists about three years ago.
In recognition of the seriousness of this problem, in the words of Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, the current species extinction rate has "reached half the level of a great extinction event in geological history." ".
Contents of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are rising sharply, and the world's population will reach 10 billion before 2050. "Our world is moving toward a world where man-made facilities replace existing free natural resources," says David Tillman of the University of Minnesota. However, we do not yet have relevant knowledge about natural ecosystems. In the Permian mass extinction 245 million years ago, 96% of species perished. Later, with the emergence of many new species, rich populations were finally restored on the earth, but this process took a full 100 million years. "Some people believe that nature will revive everything that humans have destroyed," Wilson said. The proverb goes: "As long as there is enough time, everything can come into being." Maybe nature can really restore everything, but this long process is meaningless to modern humans anyway.
Mark Twain once said that the most fascinating quality of weather is its changeability.
More than a century has passed, and we are still working hard to accurately predict weather conditions, but have achieved little success in controlling the climate; however, the damage to the environment is unprecedented.
Michael McCra, director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program, said that perhaps one day humans will have to seriously consider doing a completely different kind of climate experiment. Global warming is caused by burning chemical fuels and excessive emission of greenhouse gases. One way to solve this problem is to set up huge mirrors in space to deflect sunlight radiation. However, as Ronny. "The idea of controlling the climate only exists in science fiction," Avissa said. Until climate control moves beyond science fiction, we must do what we can.