STS - Effects of Climate Change On Society

Effects of Climate Change on Society
As a society, we have structured our day-to-day lives around historical and

current climate conditions. We are accustomed to a normal range of conditions and may
be sensitive to extremes that fall outside of this range.
Climate change could affect our society through impacts on a number of different
social, cultural, and natural resources. For example, climate change could affect human
health, infrastructure, and transportation systems, as well as energy, food, and water
supplies.
Visual Impacts of Climate Change Evidence
•Melting Glaciers
With the average global temperature which is

predicted to rise by 2 to 3°C within the next fifty
years, glaciers will continue to melt faster. Melting
glaciers will increase flood risks during the wet
season and strongly reduced dry-season water
supplies to one- sixth of the world’s population.
•Rising Sea Levels
Climate change impacts rising sea levels.

Average sea level around the world rose about 8
inches (20 cm) in the past 100 years; climate
scientists expect it to rise more and more rapidly in
the next 100 years as part of climate change impacts.
• Flooding
While the specific conditions that produce

rainfall will not change, climate change impacts the
amount of water in the atmosphere and will
increase producing violent downpours instead of
steady showers when it does rain.
•Heatwaves andDroughts
Despite downpours in some places, droughts

and prolonged heatwaves will become common.
Rising temperatures are hardly surprising, although

they do not mean that some parts of the world will not
“enjoy” record cold temperatures and terrible winter
storms. (Heating disturbs the entire global weather system and can shift cold upper air
currents as well as hot dry ones. Single snowballs and snowstorms do not make climate
change refutations.)
Increasingly, however, hot, dry places will get hotter and drier, and places that were
once temperate and had regular rainfall will become much hotter and much drier.
•Health
Climate action is just what the doctor ordered.

And we mean that quite literally. Medical
professionals have increasingly been sounding the
alarm about the risks and consequences of continually burning fossil fuels.
In Southeast Asia, for example, where malaria had been reduced to a wet season only
disease in most areas, it is again endemic almost everywhere year around.
Likewise, dengue fever, once largely confined to tropical areas, has become endemic to
the entire region.
Here’s the problem. The same dirty fossil fuel emissions that contribute to the
greenhouse effect can lead to respiratory diseases – such as asthma – in children and
adults. And they can be quite dangerous. Air pollution kills an estimated 7 million people
worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization.
By trapping heat into our planet, carbon emissions also damage the human body and
mind in other ways. We’ve all heard about the risks of heat strokes. But did you know
that warmer temperatures are linked to a 2 percent increase in mental health issues
such as stress, anxiety, and even PTSD?
•Changing Ecosystems
As the world warms, entire ecosystems will

move.
Already rising temperatures at the equator

have pushed such staple crops as rice north
into once cooler areas, many fish species have migrated long distances to stay in
waters that are the proper temperature for them.
In once colder waters, this may increase fishermen’s catches; in warmer waters, it may
eliminate fishing; in many places, such as on the East Coast of the US, it will require
fishermen to go further to reach fishing grounds.
Farmers in temperate zones are finding drier conditions difficult for crops such as corn
and wheat, and once prime growing zones are now threatened.
Some areas may see complete ecological change.
In California and on the East Coast, for example, climate change impacts and warming
will soon fundamentally change the forests; in Europe, hundreds of plants species will
disappear and hundreds more will move thousands of miles.
Reduced Food Security

•
One of the most striking impacts of rising

temperatures is felt in global agriculture, although
these impacts are felt very differently in the largely
temperate developed world and in the more tropical
developing world.
Different crops grow best at quite specific

temperatures and when those temperatures change, their productivity changes
significantly.
In North America, for example, rising temperatures may reduce corn and wheat
productivity in the US mid-west, but expand production and productivity north of the
border in Canada.
The productivity of rice, the staple food of more than one third of the world’s population,
declines 10% with every 1⁰ C increase in temperature.
Past climate induced problems have been offset by major advances in rice technology
and ever larger applications of fertilizer; expectations are that in Thailand, the world’s
largest exporter of rice, however, future increases in temperatures may reduce
production 25% by 2050.

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STS - Effects of Climate Change On Society

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Effects of Climate Change on Society

As a society, we have structured our day-to-day lives around historical and

Visual Impacts of Climate Change Evidence

With the average global temperature which is

•Rising Sea Levels

Climate change impacts rising sea levels.

While the specific conditions that produce

Despite downpours in some places, droughts

Rising temperatures are hardly surprising, although

Climate action is just what the doctor ordered.

As the world warms, entire ecosystems will

Already rising temperatures at the equator

Some areas may see complete ecological change.

Reduced Food Security

One of the most striking impacts of rising

Different crops grow best at quite specific

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