Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
6
FROM CLIMATE CHANGE TO IMPACTS
Part I of this topic recounted how scientists discovered that we are al-
tering our global climate. Our daily activities—driving our cars, heat-
ing our homes, and cooking our pizzas—generate vast and long-lasting
changes in the world around us. Part II maps out the impacts of those
changes on human societies and natural systems.
The focus now shifts from determining geophysical changes to
anticipating their impacts on human and other living systems. This
subject might seem easier than the deep physics and chemistry of cli-
mate science because it is more familiar to us, but the opposite is true.
In reality, this task—projecting impacts—is the most diffi cult and has
the greatest uncertainties of all the processes associated with global
warming.
What issues arise in impacts analysis? Look back to Figure 1, which
shows the interactions among global warming, economics, and politics.
Thus far, we have traveled from box 1 to box 2, from rising greenhouse-
gas concentrations to a suite of geophysical changes.
In Part II we trace the consequences of these changes. How does cli-
mate change affect the economy and habitability of different regions?
Will food become more expensive? And what are the consequences for
the natural world? Will ecosystems be disrupted by the changing cli-
mate patterns? Will some species become extinct? What will happen to
marine life as the oceans become more acidic?
On reading assessments of the harmful impacts of climate change,
you can easily become overwhelmed by the scope of the problems. The
