Other things
The increase of Greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere could cause a whole lot of other, less predictable disasters for our planet. In turn, these events could speed up the problems we face already with water, health, farming, ecosystems and our weather. One problem making another problem worse is called Positive Feedback and here are some examples:
Water evaporation. Water vapour is a natural greenhouse gas and as the seas heat, more water will evaporate, intensifying the effect.
Melting. There has been a 40% decrease in the amount of artic ice since the 1970’s. Were this to spread we could see huge sea level rises.
Permafrost is frozen ground, and 20% of the planet is covered in it. Lying in that ground are the remains of animals and plant life that have died over millions of years. If the permafrost was to melt, the gasses trapped in the frozen remains under the earth would be able to escape. These gasses are Methane and Carbon Dioxide – more greenhouse gases.
Forest depletion. The act of burning land to make way for farm land releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide as trees are a natural source of carbon. Forests such as the Amazon rain forest may experience dieback – as the forest is no longer able to survive due to changes in temperature and rainfall (due to climate zone changes) it starts to decay and releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide stored there.
By the 2070, large parts of northern Brazil and central southern Africa could lose their tropical forests because of reduced rainfall and increased temperatures. If this happens, global vegetation which currently absorbs carbon dioxide at the rate of some 2-3 gigatonnes of carbon (GtC) per year will become a carbon generating at about 2 GtC per year, further adding to carbon dioxide build up in the atmosphere. (Current global man-made emissions are about 6-7 GtC per year). This will make climate change even more severe.
