Global Warming: A Deadly Threat for Human Life
More recently, relatively warm Atlantic water has pushed 20 percent farther into the Arctic than scientists have ever seen - and that water is 1.6 degree f warmer than it was only a decade or so ago� ( Hodges 19). If the arctic continues to warm, the consequences could be grave. Some scientists think there�s a chance- remote but conceivable- that the ocean�s summer ice cover could completely melt at some point in coming decades.
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Dave Clark, a marine geologist at the University of Wisconsin says:
The absence of ice in the Arctic would completely change climate pattern for the northern Hemisphere. In computer modeling if you take off the ice, even the circulation of the ocean reverses. (Hodges 20)
Global warming and sea level rising is no longer a debatable argument. In fact the impacts of global warming are real. For example, Rising sea levels are endangering the tiny Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu. The leaders of Tuvalu�a tiny island country in the Pacific Ocean midway between Hawaii and Australia�have conceded defeat in their battle with the rising sea, announcing that they will abandon their homeland.
After being rebuffed by Australia, the Tuvaluan asked New Zealand to accept its 11,000 citizens (Brown). In addition to island nations, low-lying coastal countries are also threatened by rising sea level. In 2000 the World Bank published a map showing that a 1-meter rise in sea level would inundate half of Bangladesh's riceland. With a rise in sea level of up to 1 meter forecast for this century, Bangladeshis would be forced to migrate not by the thousands but by the millions( Brown).
Secondly, global warming can cause climate changes and extreme weather events. According to Union of Concerned Scientist of USA (ucsusa) since the beginning of the 20th century, Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 1.1�F (0.6�C).
Warming in the 20th century is greater than at any time during the past 400 to 600 years (ucsusa). Globally average precipitation is projected to increase, but both increase and decrease will occur depending on the specific global region. �Precipitation is projected to increase in both summer and winter over high latitude regions; in winter over northern mid-latitudes, tropical Africa and Antarctica; and in summer over south and East Asia.
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