Everyone has heard the song and dance accompanying global warming; the ice caps are melting, temperatures are fluctuating and the ocean temperatures are rising (or falling) beyond acceptable levels.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, there is more environmentalism concerns surrounding global warming that aren’t as well advertised, but can affect our day to day lives.
Everyone has heard the song and dance accompanying global warming; the ice caps are melting, temperatures are fluctuating and the ocean temperatures are rising (or falling) beyond acceptable levels.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, there is more environmentalism concerns surrounding global warming that aren’t as well advertised, but can affect our day to day lives.
- Aggravating Allergies – If your allergies have gotten worse over the years, or you just recently developed allergies, global warming might be to blame. Research has shown that the higher carbon dioxide levels and warmer temperatures associated with global warming are also playing a role by prodding plants to bloom earlier and produce more pollen. With more allergens produced earlier, allergy season can last longer.
- Moving to Higher Ground – It might be hard to notice, but chipmunks, mice, squirrels, and the slightly scarier polar bear are all moving to higher elevated ground due to changed in their habitat caused by global warming.
- Always Sunny in… the Arctic – The melting of the polar ice caps is only one effect global warming is having on the arctic. Plants that are usually under ice for most of the year and starting to bloom earlier as the ice around them melt earlier in the year. Chlorophyll has been found in larger amounts than in ancient times, meaning a biological boom in the Arctic in recent decades.
- Disappearing Lakes – Lakes in the Arctic have literally been disappearing, supporting the suggestion that global warming is working the fastest on our polar caps. Scientists are hypothesizing the ground under the lakes are thawing, and therefore allowing the water to seep into the land.
- Sinkholes, Rockslides and Diseases, Oh My! – The ice caps are not the only places where land is thawing. The permanently frozen layer of soil beneath Earth’s surface. This may lead to seriously destabilizing effects which could develop into sinkholes, creating damage to thinks like houses, railroads and highways. There is even reason to believe that diseases like smallpox will reemerge as the ground around decaying dead bodies’ thaws.
- Animals Miss Their Meals – Because spring is starting sooner, animals that migrate might miss out on the food supply. Ones that can reset their internal clock might stand a chance, but if animals miss their food supply, they will eventually die out and not be able to pass on their genetic information to future generations.
- Forest Fires Increase – Along with the raging hurricanes and melting glaciers, global warming is also causing more volatile forest fires. In the past decade, the numbers of forest fires have increased, as have their lifespan and areas in which they can reach. Scientists have correlated the rampant blazes with warmer temperatures and earlier snowmelt. When spring arrives early and triggers an earlier snow-melt, forest areas become drier and stay so for longer, increasing the chance that they might ignite.
