25 Devastating Effects Of Climate Change (Part 4 of 5)

16. 63% of major wine regions will no longer be suitable for grape-growing by 2050.

As temperature rises, many of our current wine producing regions will become unsuitable for vineyards. The number above uses a 1.8 degree C warming and is from a 2012 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Problems could be compounded as owners relocate their vineyards to higher elevations — an ecosystem destroying process. Establishing a vineyard requires “removal of native vegetation, typically followed by deep plowing, fumigation with methyl bromide or other soil-sterilizing chemicals, and the application of fertilizers and fungicides,” said the study.

Since “[v]iticulture is famously sensitive to climate,” the study said, it “may be illustrative of conservation implications of shifts in other agricultural crops.”

While not all agree with the percentages above, scientists have shown repeatedly that climate change will cause a variety of habitats to become unsuitable for their current inhabitants. This will send many plants and animals in search of new homes, invading those of others.

17. Some reptile species could turn mostly female, potentially leading to their extinction.

Because many reptiles rely on ambient temperatures to regulate physiological processes, they will be directly affected by global temperature change.

For turtles, nest temperature determines the sex of the offspring. A cooler nest hatches only males while a warmer nest is all females. Changes in sex ratio could affect the potential to produce offspring as well as the evolutionary fitness of the species, according to the Forest Service — both factors which do not bode well for the survival of the reptiles.

One study in the Cape Verde Islands found that as rising temperatures heated sands in which sea turtles laid their eggs, the nest produced more females. While this may lead to an initial increase in population, 100 years in the future it could spell disaster, study author Graeme Hays told The Guardian. “You have so few males left that it’s likely to be a problem. There will be heaps of female but not enough males to fertilize all those eggs,” he said.

Animals with similar problems could include other turtles, alligators, crocodiles, and some lizards.

18. Atlanta and New York could see twice as many stormy days by 2100, compared to the 1962 to 1989 average.

One study found that when greenhouse gases increased, conditions prime for intense thunderstorms in the eastern and southern US also increased. Other climate studies have suggested there will be “robust increases in the occurrence of severe thunderstorm environments” in the eastern US, often occurring before the 2 degrees C global warming baseline.

One key factor that fuels thunderstorm formation is how much “raw energy” — called convective available potential energy, or CAPE — is available. CAPE is affected by how much heat and moisture is in the air, as well as that air’s tendency to rise, explains NASA’s Earth Observatory.

“CAPE can provide storms with the raw fuel to produce rain and hail, and vertical wind shear can pull and twist weak storms into strong, windy ones,” meteorologist Harold Brooks of NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory told the Earth Observatory. Signs indicate that CAPE will be increasing as the climate warms.

19. Many countries are losing essential water sources. More than 1 billion people worldwide rely on glaciers and snow for freshwater as they melt, according to the IPCC.

When glaciers are in equilibrium with the climate, they act as valuable and stable sources of freshwater for many regions including the Andes, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and parts of India and China. They store water during cold or wet years and release it during warm years as they melt. “As glaciers shrink, however, their diminishing influence may make the water supply less dependable,” the report said.

Because glaciers are currently out of equilibrium, “total meltwater yields from stored glacier ice will increase in many regions during the next decades but decrease thereafter,” the IPCC said. This can lead to floods in the immediate future but result in a lack of meltwater in the long term.

20. Air pollution in California could cause a public health disaster.

Adverse conditions associated with a changing climate could worsen Southern California’s air quality, the state’s clean air progress report suggested.

“The higher number of extreme heat days and heat waves predicted to occur as a result of climate change will increase smog formation, increase the number and severity of wildfires, worsen heat island effects in urban areas, and increase adverse health effects due to the public’s increased exposure to harmful air pollutants,” the report said.

Air pollution has been linked to a to a long list of health ailments, including asthma, heart and lung damage, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and heatstroke, the report noted.

Fine particulate matter is the “greatest risk to public health.” This pollutant has been linked to heart disease, premature mortality and perhaps even diabetes, autism, and cognitive impairment.

Sources: Yahoo, businessinsider.com