Humans Change the Earth

Water

Oceans

• CO2 increase effects:
  • Warming
    • Causes: Absorbs heat from the air - the ocean has absorbed 80 percent of the heat added to the Earth's system by climate change
    • Effects:
      • Changes range of species; drive some species to extinctions
      • Kills coral reefs (Great Barrier reef, Australia)
      • Expands water, causes sea level rise
      • Changes world weather patterns (hot, cold, wet, dry)
      • Makes storms more severe (hurricanes, tornados, monsoons, etc.)
    • Data: Global maximum average ocean temperatures rise in the past decade + local fluctuations
      https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-sea-surface-temperature
  • Acidifying
    • Causes: Atmospheric CO2 increases, much absorbed by oceans: dissolved CO2 acidifies water
    • Effects: Reduces the amount of carbonate, a key building block in seawater. This makes it more difficult for marine organisms, such as coral and some plankton, to form their shells and skeletons, and existing shells may begin to dissolve.
    • Data: Ocean pH measurement trends
      https://ocean.si.edu/conservation/acidification/ocean-acidification-graph
  • Level Rising
    • Causes: Warming air melts ice, adding water, warming water expands
    • Effects:
      • Gradual loss of coastal land and wetlands
      • Increased periodic flooding of coastal areas; elimination of flood insurance,
      • Increased coastal erosion
      • Saltwater contamination of fresh water
    • Examples:
      • Florida
        Data: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/king-tides-cause-flooding-florida-fall-2017
      • Disappearing islands in the Pacific
    • Articles: New York Times Louisiana section 24Feb18, Everglades (ScienceNews 18Aug18 p.19),
• Pollution
  • Plastic
    • Causes: Not degradable trash
    • Effects: Enters the ocean food chain, poisoning marine life and people who eat it
    • Data: National Geographic, Jun16 p40
  • Nutrients
    • Causes: Washing of fertilizers into ocean
    • Effects:
      • Algae growth
      • Dead zones totally depleted of oxygen
    • Data: http://science.sciencemag.org/content/359/6371/eaam7240/tab-pdf
• Habitat Reduction
  • Coral reef decline (local species decline, increased shoreline wave heights (ScienceNews 31Mar18)
• Overfishing: Data: https://www.fishforward.eu/en/topics/facts-figures/

Lakes

• Level Decreasing/Dams
  • Causes: Diversion for agriculture - irrigation, less for drinking
  • Effects: Less water for use for business and pleasure, disappearance of life that depends on the lakes.
  • Data: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/world-vanishing-lakes-180949645/
• Warming faster than oceans
• Dying: Aral Sea, Lake Chad, Lake Urmia, Lake Poopo
• Toxic algae: Data: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/hab/
• Invasive species: Data: https://www.invasive.org/ (US)

Rivers

• Centuries of pollution

Ice

• Melting
  • Cause: Absorbs heat from the air
  • Effect: Rising sea levels, loss of arctic environment
  • Data: https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/arctic-sea-ice/
  • One of many examples: Glacier National Park (created 1920 150 glaciers; 2018 26 glaciers)

Human Waste

• Runoff: Nitrogen, phosphorous enhance algae, kill water plants, dead zones due to oxygen depletion from overgrowth due to nutrients
• Plastics: Ocean pollution (National Geographic, Jun16 p40)
  Data: https://www.ngi.no/eng/News/NGI-News/When-plastic-is-part-of-the-food-chain
• Trash: Data: https://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-trash-20160422-20160421-snap-htmlstory.html
• Sewage: Data: http://www.podtanks.com/global_wastewater_problem.html
• Insecticides: killing bees

Underground

• Water - Disappearing:
  • Cause: People withdrawing more from aquifers than is naturally added
  • Effect: Water shortages for drinking and farming - long term
  • Data:
    • US: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/gwdepletion.html
    • World: https://www.seametrics.com/blog/groundwater/
• Oil - partial cause of CO2 buildup in atmosphere
• Contamination - pesticides

Water Supplies

• Water stress (Google "water stress," "water stress by country")
• Lack of clean drinking water (ScienceNews 18Aug18 p.15)

Air

Temperature Changes

• Average Warming

Pollution

• CO2
  • Causes:
    • Fossil fuel combustion
    • Cement production
  • Effects:
    • Global warming
    • Ocean acidification
    • Data: [In progress]
• NOx
  • Causes:
    • Fossil fuel combustion
    • Cement production
  • Effects: Human respiratory problems/diseases
  • Data:
• Particles
  • Causes:
    • Fossil fuel combustion (cars, trucks, power plants)
    • Fires
  • Effects: Human Health - lung problems
  • Data: [In progress]
• Fires
  • Causes:
    • Burning to clear land
    • Accidental fires in drought dried land
  • Effects: Air pollution, forest destruction/habitat destruction
  • Data: ScienceNews18Aug18 p.9
• Ozone
  • Causes:
    • CFC's
    • Heat and pollution
  • Effects: Ozone hole in the antarctic, air pollution/human health
  • Data: Satellite observations of ozone, ground air pollution

Weather Changes

• More variable
  • Causes: Heating of land and atmosphere drives storms northward, provides more energy
  • Effects: More frequent storms, more extreme
  • Data: [In progress]
• More extreme
  • Causes: More heat in the air and water drives more storms and more extreme storms
  • Effects: Significant increase in weather deaths, large economic losses
  • Data: [In progress]
  • Hurricanes
  • Tornados
  • Droughts
  • Flooding - Multiple "100 year" and "500 year" floods in a 10 year span

Land

Drought

• Causes:
  • CFC's
  • Heat and pollution
• Effects:
  • Depopulation
  • Fires
    • California fires now year-round, much more intense - NYT 28Jul18 p.A10
    • Greece, Jul18

Excessive Heat

• Heat wave deaths (Google it!)
• City heat islands (NYT 28Jul18)

Waste

• Plastic waste
• Toxic minerals
• Drug waste
• Fertilizer waste

Animals

• Extinctions
• Invasive species
• Climate zones move north
• Antibiotic buildup
• Disease carriers - prions
• Pets - cats killing birds

Plants

• Growing zones move north

Human Health Effects

• Lung Disease
  • Effects: Lung cancer, emphysema
  • Causes: Air Pollution
    • Heat caused - ozone and related on hot days
    • Car caused - diesel particulates, NOx
    • Thermal inversions capture pollution locally
    • Fire caused pollution
• General Health
  • Effects: Lowered resistance to disease
  • Causes: Ingested antibiotics in the environment makes them less effective in people against sickness
• Poor people bear by far the greatest burden - no way to adapt

Deforestation

• Global forest change 1990, 2000, 2005
  • Data: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/datablog/2009/sep/02/total-forest-area-by-country

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Last updated: February 2019