climate change 2.4 Flashcards
How does climate change directly impact humans? [3]
-extreme weather events occur more often and with greater severity,
-which comes with the loss of human lives,
-increased poverty, and
-destruction of properties.
How does climate change indirectly impact humans? [3]
-alters cultural ecosystem services including the
.melting of arctic ice and
.degradation of natural landscapes
-affects provisioning ecosystem services including
.food production
Why are impacts of climate change on human systems uneven? [4]
2 points 2 examples
- varying climate variables such as temperature and precipitation of the place.
e.g. Central Australia is usually dry but is expected to become even drier due to climate change. - different local social and economic factors such as level of economic development
-a developing country may take longer to recover due to a lack of financial resources, prolonging economic losses as compared to a developed country.
How does climate change lead to more extreme weather events? [3] +examples
- evi.d. shows that climate change increases the severity or frequency of extreme weather events
- the strongest evi.d. supports how severe heat waves are occurring more often due to climate change
- climate change increases the frequency and severity of these different extreme weather events which affect humans directly:
heat waves, droughts, floods, wildfires, tropical cyclones (learn examples for each)
How does climate change result in more severe and frequent heat waves? [3]
How do they impact humans directly? [1]
Examples? [2]
- heat wave: period of excessively hot weather that is abnormal, usually lasting for several days or longer. temp. as high as 40C.
- CC leads to higher temp., making heat waves more intense and frequent.
- People may suffer from heat stroke, difficulties in breathing, and death.
- (example) 2003 heat wave that hit Europe caused 70,000 people to die from the heat lasting 2 weeks.
2019 intense heat waves his Europe again, breaking temperature records where temperatures as high as 45C were recorded in France.
How does climate change result in more severe and frequent droughts? [4]
How do they impact humans directly? [1]
Examples? [2]
- drought: area experiences lack of precipitation for an extended period of time, leading to water shortage.
- warmer atmospheric temperatures due to CC increase evaporation, reducing surface water.
- areas in dry climate-> dry seasons may get even drier, resulting in droughts.
4.likely to occur in places already experiencing dry climate (subtropics) where most deserts are located. - Shortage of clean water can lead to dehydration and death.
- 2018-2019 drought in Afghanistan
-affected over 2/3 of the country
-10mil people affected due to lack of food
How does climate change result in more severe and frequent wildfires? [2]
How do they impact humans directly? [1]
Examples? [4]
- wildfires: unplanned and uncontrolled fires that burn in natural areas like forests or grasslands
- CC causes warmer & drier conditions-> more dead trees & vegetation-> easier for wildfires to start & harder to put out.
- suffocation, injuries & burns
- 2019-2020 wildfires in Australia.
-widespread fires affected the entire continent
-difficult to get fires under control due to persistent hot and dry conditions because of CC
-34 people died and thousands of buildings were burnt down.
-owners of these properties were left homeless due to the wildfires.
How does climate change result in more severe and frequent floods? [3]
How do they impact humans directly? [2]
Examples? [2]
- warmer temp. leads to excessive precipitation in certain places
- warmer temp. lead to more snowmelt-> increase in sea level
- sea levels rise-> higher coastal flood risk
- loss of human lives due to drowning and injuries
- food and water supplies affected
- Bangladesh 2020 flood
-worst monsoon flooding due to intense rainfall
-took the lives of 260 million people
-1.3 billion homes destroyed
How does climate change result in more severe and frequent tropical cyclones? [3]
How do they impact humans directly? [1]
Examples? [2]
- tropical cyclones: intense circular storms that originate over warm tropical oceans
- accompanied by strong winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surges
- CC-> warmer oceans & more water vapour in the atmosphere-> driving force for more intense cyclones
- Strong winds destroy buildings and crops, leading to economy losses, and threatening food security
- 2020 cyclones in the Philippines.
-hit by 6 tropical cyclones from oct-nov 2020
-Typhoon Goni was the strongest-> loss of lives & mass destruction of properties
-evacuation of nearly 1mil people
-power supplies cut
How does climate change impact humans indirectly? [3]
- affecting provisioning ecosystem services including food production
- affecting regulating ecosystems services including disease regulation
- altering cultural ecosystem services including the degradation of natural landscapes.
How does climate change affect the provisioning ecosystem services?
- CC causes physical changes to environment-> affects provisioning ecosystem services-> impact people’s livelihoods and food security
-fish production
-agricultural yield
impacts on fish production
- CC-> ocean temp. & acidity increase-> threaten aquatic life & affecting distribution of aquatic species as they migrate to cooler waters
hence, CC’s impact on aquatic environment INDIRECTLY (humans)
-affects economic livelihoods of people who depend on fisheries
-affects food security of a place as fish supplies dwindle
However, changes in aquatic ecosystems can also bring a +ve impact to the provisioning ecosystem services in certain places.
-higher latitudes may benefit since fish migrate to cooler waters polewards,
-fisheries there catch a more diverse range of seafood
e.g. Tonle Sap Lake in Cambodia, fishing is a main economic activity
CC led to higher temp. and unpredictable rainfall-> water levels decline-> reduce availability of fishes.
hence, indirectly threatening economic livelihoods & food security of Cambodians
impacts on crop yields
- CC-> more severe/frequent weather events-> more difficult for crops to survive-> reducing food production
- CC impacts to provisioning ecosystem services are unevenly experienced
-food production falls, food price increase
-affects the poor the most as a larger proportion of their income is spent on food-> higher possibility of malnutrition & starvation
e.g. 2020 Thailand drought
-worst drought in 4 decades
-lack of rain & shorter monsoon szn-> dried up reservoirs & barren land-> farmers couldn’t grow crops
-economic livelihood of farmers was greatly impacted
how does CC affect the regulating ecosystem services?
- CC-> physical changes to environment-> affecting regulating ecosystem services
- affecting ability to regulate spread of diseases-> people get sick more often
increase in vector-borne diseases
- warmer temp.-> conducive environment for vectors like mosquitos & ticks to survive and breed
- as temp. increase-> mosquitos are able to move to higher latitudes and altitudes (warmer)-> more areas of the world at risk of vector-borne diseases
- sick-> loss of lives, reduced economic productivity as people cannot work
e.g. before 2018, it was too cold for mosquitos to breed in the mountainous regions of Bhutan.
-in 2019, Bhutan suffered its first national dengue epidemic
