Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4
. Impacts of climate change
Temperature rise above pre-industrial levels
Major potential impacts
• Major impacts on vulnerable ecosystems and species
(such as polar regions, wetlands, and cloud forests).
1°-2°C
• Increase in extreme weather events and spread of infec-
tious disease.
2°-3°C
• Major loss of coral reef ecosystem.
• Major impacts on all ecosystems and species.
• Large impacts on agriculture, water resources, and hu-
man health.
• Significant increase in extreme weather events.
• Terrestrial carbon sink becomes a source, accelerating
climate change.
3°-4°C
• Major species extinction.
• Food and water security become major issues.
• Significant impacts on human health via lack of food and
clean water disproportionately effecting the poor.
• Environmental forced mass migration increases.
• Ocean carbon sink greatly reduces accelerating carbon
accumulation in the atmosphere.
• Extreme weather events are over 10 times more common
than in 2010.
• Western Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets melting ac-
celerates causing great rises in global sea level.
>4°C
• Environmental forced mass migration accelerates and
there could be increase conflict over resources.
4°-5°C
• Fifth of world population effected by flooding.
• Over 3 billion people suffer from water scarcity.
• Food yields fall everywhere and global production plum-
mets leading to wide spread malnutrition and starvation.
• Significant increase in human deaths due to malnutrition,
disease, flooding, and extreme weather events.
5°-6°C or higher
• Don't go there.
