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Humans impact the physical environment in many ways: overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water. These negative impacts can affect human behavior and can prompt mass migrations or battles over clean water.
- Human Impacts on The Environment
Humans impact the physical environment in many ways:...
- Human Impacts on The Environment
22 de jun. de 2020 · Here we’ll explore how humans affect the environment, the consequences of our actions, and how we can mitigate our impact and protect the planet for future generations. 1. Overpopulation could ...
- Donovan Alexander
Takeaways. We already see effects scientists predicted, such as the loss of sea ice, melting glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and more intense heat waves. Scientists predict global temperature increases from human-made greenhouse gases will continue. Severe weather damage will also increase and intensify.
- Overview
- What causes global warming?
- What are the effects of global warming?
- How can we limit global warming?
The signs of global warming are everywhere, and are more complex than just climbing temperatures.
Our planet is getting hotter. Since the Industrial Revolution—an event that spurred the use of fossil fuels in everything from power plants to transportation—Earth has warmed by 1 degree Celsius, about 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
That may sound insignificant, but 2023 was the hottest year on record, and all 10 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the past decade.
Global warming and climate change are often used interchangeably as synonyms, but scientists prefer to use “climate change” when describing the complex shifts now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems.
Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also natural disasters, shifting wildlife habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of these changes are emerging as humans continue to add heat-trapping greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, to the atmosphere.
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When fossil fuel emissions are pumped into the atmosphere, they change the chemistry of our atmosphere, allowing sunlight to reach the Earth but preventing heat from being released into space. This keeps Earth warm, like a greenhouse, and this warming is known as the greenhouse effect.
Carbon dioxide is the most commonly found greenhouse gas and about 75 percent of all the climate warming pollution in the atmosphere. This gas is a product of producing and burning oil, gas, and coal. About a quarter of Carbon dioxide also results from land cleared for timber or agriculture.
One of the most concerning impacts of global warming is the effect warmer temperatures will have on Earth's polar regions and mountain glaciers. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet. This warming reduces critical ice habitat and it disrupts the flow of the jet stream, creating more unpredictable weather patterns around the globe.
(Learn more about the jet stream.)
A warmer planet doesn't just raise temperatures. Precipitation is becoming more extreme as the planet heats. For every degree your thermometer rises, the air holds about seven percent more moisture. This increase in moisture in the atmosphere can produce flash floods, more destructive hurricanes, and even paradoxically, stronger snow storms.
The world's leading scientists regularly gather to review the latest research on how the planet is changing. The results of this review is synthesized in regularly published reports known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports.
A recent report outlines how disruptive a global rise in temperature can be:
•Coral reefs are now a highly endangered ecosystem. When corals face environmental stress, such as high heat, they expel their colorful algae and turn a ghostly white, an effect known as coral bleaching. In this weakened state, they more easily die.
Limiting the rising in global warming is theoretically achievable, but politically, socially, and economically difficult.
Those same sources of greenhouse gas emissions must be limited to reduce warming. For example, oil and gas used to generate electricity or power industrial manufacturing will need to be replaced by net zero emission technology like wind and solar power. Transportation, another major source of emissions, will need to integrate more electric vehicles, public transportation, and innovative urban design, such as safe bike lanes and walkable cities.
(Learn more about solutions to limit global warming.)
One global warming solution that was once considered far fetched is now being taken more seriously: geoengineering. This type of technology relies on manipulating the Earth's atmosphere to physically block the warming rays of the sun or by sucking carbon dioxide straight out of the sky.
Restoring nature may also help limit warming. Trees, oceans, wetlands, and other ecosystems help absorb excess carbon—but when they're lost, so too is their potential to fight climate change.
Ultimately, we'll need to adapt to warming temperatures, building homes to withstand sea level rise for example, or more efficiently cooling homes during heat waves.
14 de oct. de 2021 · 1. Changes in land and sea use. Illustration: Charlotte Ager/The Guardian. Clearing the US prairies: ‘On a par with tropical deforestation’. “It’s hidden destruction. We’re still losing grasslands...
Tackling threats that impact the Earth. WWF’s work addresses direct and indirect threats—and the forces that drive them—to conserve biodiversity and reduce humanity’s ecological footprint.
1. Spread the word. Encourage your friends, family and co-workers to reduce their carbon pollution. Join a global movement like Count Us In, which aims to inspire 1 billion people to take practical steps and challenge their leaders to act more boldly on climate.
