Outline how global warming may impact on human activity through increasing the level of extreme weather
by
pseudonymegg (student)
Outline how global warming may impact on human activity through increasing the level of extreme weather.
Global warming is believed by many scientists to increase the frequency and the intensity of many types of extreme weather. Extreme weather is weather which is unusually severe (e.g. when hot weather turns into a heat wave) or that occurs in an area where it’s unexpected (e.g. drought in a commonly wet area).
Higher temperatures due to global warming cause changes in global air circulation and ocean currents. This means that some areas will experience less rainfall than usual and others will receive more. Areas experiencing less rainfall may have more frequent and more severe droughts. South-Eastern Australia has been suffering through a long-term drought since 2002. This drought has had many social, environmental and economic impacts on the lives of citizens. E.g. over 10,000 farming families have been forced to leave the Murray-Darling Basin in the last five years because they can no longer make a living from agriculture; because of the dry soil. Also, food prices have increased dramatically as crops which rely on irrigation have been particularly badly affected; rice production has fallen to 2% of pre-drought totals, meaning that poorer families are struggling to afford food. However Australia is a MEDC therefore it’s more able to cope with the impacts of the drought.
