This rise in ocean levels would have disasterous effects on humanity. A 1 metre rise could submerge 6 percent of The Netherlands, 17.5 percent of Bangladesh, and most islands. The rise in volume of northern oceans will have a "Domino Effect" on the global ocean as a whole, causing a general increase of ocean levels worldwide as a result of melting glaciers.
A rise in global sea levels would result in frequent erosion of cliffs and dunes. Storm surges, in which winds pile up water and raise the level of the surrounding sea, will become more frequent. Wealthier countries will spend billions of dollars to protect their coastal communities, while poorer countries might evacuate low-lying coastal regions.
In temperate mountains, snowlines will be higher, and growing seasons will be longer in some areas. Winter and nighttime temperatures will tend to rise more than summer and daytime ones. In addition, the evaporation of water from oceans will result in a more humid world.
Greater humidity will increase rainfall, on average, about 1 percent for each Fahrenheit degree of warming. Storms are expected to be more frequent and intense. An increase in the world's humidity will allow water to evaporate more rapidly from soil, causing it to dry out faster between rains. As a result, some regions will become drier than before.
Global warming will also alter alter wind patterns and velocities, thus causing weather patterns to be less predictable and more extreme.
A rise in global temperatures and ocean levels, along with an increased humidity factor and longer growing seasons, will have a harmful effect on animals, plants, ecosystems, and the general balance of the biosphere.
Animals and plants will find it difficult to escape from or adjust to the effects of global warming due to widespread human occupation of animal and plant habitats (ecosystems). Speices that come across cities obstructing their route north or south may vanish. During previous, natural global warming episodes, animals tended to migrate towards the poles and up mountainsides toward higher elevations; plants aptly shifted their ranges, seeking new areas as old habitats grew too warm. As mentioned above, human development might hinder the movement of plants, including forests, and lead to their extinction.
These appalling discoveries shocked many scientists when they were first discovered.. Many people began to make changes to their lifestyles to stagnate and eliminate the negative effects of global warming. (Refer to "Solutions To Global Warming" for more information). To date, there is a substancial amount of evidence to support these claims:
-Over the past 100 years, the world's sea level has risen by nearly eight inches.
-The world's oceans are getting warmer. The upper layers of water in the tropics have warmed by approximately 0.5 degrees Celcius in the past 50 years.
-El Nino, the Pacific Ocean pehnomenon that causes a warm current along Peru's coast, occurred four consecutive years, from 1991 to 1994. El Nino has led to crop failures in Australia and floods in California and has intensified the monsoons of Southeast Asia. [Source: "Global Warming: Conflicting Viewpoints" (refer to bibliography)].
-The Earth's average temperature rose 0.7 degrees Celcius over the 20th century.
-The year 1994 was the hottest year on record, since climate records began in 1850. By 1994, roughly 283 billion tons of carbon dioxide had been released into the atmosphere. (This is a cumulative total, from 1750 (the beginning of the Industrial Revolution) to 1994).
-Scientists predict a 3 degree increase in global temperatures by the year 2100 - a change that has been unparalled in millenia
background/global_warming_report.html.