Climate impacts are the effects of climate change and are distinct from, but caused by, climate changes. For example, environmentalists and some scientists claim that changes in the climate such as a heatwaves or more violent storms, have consequences for the functioning of ecosystems and the survival of species.
Deforestation has long been a concern to all sorts of people and isn’t particular either to environmentalists or conservationists. This is why the survival of forests has become an emotive issue, and this emotion mobilised to service the green agenda. The UK’s Natural History Museum, for instance claims that ‘Centuries of farming, building and industry… Read More »Deforestation
On the green view, society depends on natural processes throughout the environment that provide essential resources. For example, pollinators such as bees assist in agriculture, and photosynthesis in plants and algae produce oxygen. Seas produce fish, on which many coastal communities depend. According to green reasoning therefore, changes to the climate, especially warming, will alter… Read More »Ecosystems
According to green claims, climate change could bring increased volumes of water to some areas, overwhelming rivers and other water management infrastructure. Flooding has always been a problem for people, particularly in older European towns and cities, which were built beside rivers and estuaries when they were important modes of transport. Historic British cities such… Read More »Flooding
Sea level rise is perhaps the most plausible threat from climate change. The risk comes from thermal expansion of water and the melting of glacial ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, in which vast volumes of frozen water are locked. The idea that a warmer atmosphere will cause more ice to melt, and for this… Read More »Sea Level Rise
Many campaigners, NGOs, journalists, politicians and some scientists claim that we are in the midst of a “biodiversity crisis” or a “sixth mass extinction”. According to these stories, climate change is one of a number of anthropogenic factors responsible for killing life on Earth at a rate which is equivalent to cataclysmic changes in natural… Read More »Species extinction and biodiversity loss
Each summer, fresh images of extensive damage done to forests and homes by wildfire ignites media panic and speculation about the role of climate change in these apocalyptic scenes. But areas from which these images are produced, such as California and Australia, are typically places that have always been prone to significant wildfire. Moreover, it… Read More »Wildfires