The Consequences of Climate Change

The Earth as it is today is fundamentally a result of the evolution of human beings, which has led to significant environmental changes. In recent years these changes have caused climate events that have become increasingly frequent, events that have had a growing impact on the Earth’s temperature due to global warming, causing climate change.

But what does the term climate change really mean? The United Nations defines it as “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” As to the origin of these changes, this definition states, "These shifts may be natural... But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to burning fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.” So, we could summarise this definition as a global variation in the Earth’s climate.

To understand this variation, we need to analyse the situation that this has caused in order to understand the consequences of climate change. Clearly, human beings are the main culprit due to our actions, but the results will affect all social strata of the Earth and society, from rising sea levels to problems for agriculture and livestock farming.

In other words, global warming has already begun to have adverse economic, social and natural consequences.

Analysing the Consequences

The main effects of climate change resulting in an increase in temperature are caused by:

• Increased Exposure to Hot Weather
• Droughts Due to Falling Humidity
• Melting Polar Ice Cover
• Rising Sea Levels

Breaking down each of these effects, rising global temperatures is perhaps one of the biggest problems facing humans, animals, and plants in the coming years.

Rising Sea Levels

Rising temperatures have already caused several events. Rising sea level has devastating consequences in coastal areas, such as soil erosion and contamination or changes to urban coastal areas. All this leads to habitat destruction for animal and plant life in these areas.

Regarding rising sea levels, it is essential to be aware that sea levels rose by an average of 10 to 20 centimetres during the 20th century. In the first twenty years of this century, this rate has doubled that of the previous eighty years.

These sea-level rises are caused by melting ice from polar ice cover, which regulates the Earth’s temperature, which is gradually shrinking, making this a cyclical phenomenon: as the temperature rises, more large blocks of ice melt away and no longer regulate the temperature.

Changing Weather Patterns

The Earth’s hottest regions have grown continuously in recent years, with longer summers and higher temperatures. This change is causing spring and autumn to gradually disappear as extreme heat gives way to extreme cold, often accompanied by extreme rainy seasons that destroy areas inhabited by humans and animals. 

Natural Disasters

These temperature rises also make fires and natural disasters more frequent, an almost unstoppable trend. Very hot summers in areas that have historically not experienced such extreme weather increase the risk of fires, adding another risk for the animal habitat and the environment.

The Human Factor: Cause & Consequences

A common denominator of all the factors discussed throughout this article is the main cause of this problem: Human beings act in ways that cause climate change, and they will consequently experience the results.

The need to move about and the ways we do it are affecting our health and the environment. In recent years this has led to a search for new, more sustainable mobility models. All this will be discussed at the upcoming first international specialist congress, Global Mobility Call.

All these actions have a high cost for the human factor. It affects our health because our bodies are not adapted to survive extreme temperatures and sudden changes in climate and environment.

Society will have to bear the economic costs of natural phenomena such as disasters such as floods, fires, and storms. A European Commission economic assessment claims that flood-related disasters between 1980 and 2011 cost over €90 billion.

This is just one example of what is just beginning: this situation will also affect agriculture, tourism, energy factors, flora and fauna, which have already started to suffer the consequences of climate change.