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Climate change

Climate Change

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On this site, we refer to the claimed direct effects of global warming as climate change. Articles in this category examine the arguments and evidence that the planet is changing in response to global warming. All of our articles about the subject of climate change effects are listed below.

Drought

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Drought is a consequence of global warming that drives many fears about the future. But like heatwaves, the definition and detection of a drought is not as straightforward as meteorological phenomena such as rain or wind, and are instead defined by deviation from a norm or average. Some places are naturally much drier than others,… Read More »Drought

Glaciers and Ice Sheets

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Glaciers and ice sheets (rather than sea ice as such) melting is one of the major concerns about global warming and its consequences. Whereas Arctic sea ice cannot contribute to sea level rise, water locked up in the world’s glaciers and ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contain enough water to raise sea levels by… Read More »Glaciers and Ice Sheets

Heatwaves

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Heatwaves are the most intuitive consequence of global warming. But when discussing heatwaves, it is important to distinguish the meteorological data from data relating to impacts. As is shown in other sections, data relating to the social and economic consequences of extreme weather do not show society becoming more vulnerable to extreme temperatures, whether or… Read More »Heatwaves

Precipitation

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According to meteorology, warmer air is capable of holding more moisture, therefore global warming will likely cause a more saturated atmosphere to make more water available to weather fronts, increasing the volume of precipitation (rain).  This proposition is uncontroversial, leading to little debate, perhaps because its consequences are not clearly significant. For example, a 2022… Read More »Precipitation

Sea Ice

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For many years, each northern hemisphere summer has brought fresh concern about the survival of the Arctic ice sheet. Chiefly for its supposed role as habitat for the polar bear, the ‘green’ view holds that the disappearance of summer sea ice would at least symbolically represent a radical transformation – degradation – of the natural… Read More »Sea Ice

Storms

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A video to promote the 2009 COP15 meeting in Copenhagen published by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs depicted a young girl being chased across a desolate landscape by a violent storm – a nightmare depicting the future ahead of the world’s children if climate change is not stopped. The idea of storms becoming more… Read More »Storms