We have previously looked at whether climate change was a real threat or just scaremongering. Here is some of what is already happening.
The effect on our health
Human health is at risk from some effects of climate change:
- Winters are now not cold enough to kill off germs and bacteria, which means they multiply.
- We have some species of mosquitoes already but mosquitoes carrying the disease malaria used only to be found in tropical countries; now they are spreading further northwards because the warmer climate suits them. There are fears that they will soon reach Britain.
- There are more heat-related deaths and cases of heatstroke and dehydration in Europe every year.
The effect on wildlife
Many species of plants and animals are likely to be affected by climate change.
Polar bears need ice to live on. The Arctic is warming about twice as fast as the global average, causing the ice that polar bears depend on to melt away. Loss of sea ice also threatens the bear’s main prey, seals, which need the ice to raise their young.
Seals need ice floes too – to rest and give birth to their pups. If the ice floes continue to melt as quickly as they are, the seals and polar bears will die out as their habitat disappears.
Plankton and krill, at the beginning of the food chain, provide food for a huge number of animals in the sea, from barnacles to fish and even sharks and whales. Plankton and krill are very easily affected by changes in sea temperatures and will move away or die if the temperature changes, even slightly. This will be felt right up the food chain.
Many of the faster animals can move or migrate to other areas if the conditions in their habitat change for the worse. But plants can’t move at all, so they are particularly vulnerable. The climate is changing faster than the plants and some animals can adapt to the changes.
The effect on farming
Some experts are predicting that by 2060 the British climate will be more like that of the Loire Valley, France. This means that crops of sunflowers, oil seed rape (for cooking oil and cattle feed) and vineyards (growing grapes for eating and for making wine) are becoming more popular in some parts of the UK – they like a warm, dry climate like parts of France. Whilst that is good news, the bad news is that a lot of pests like locusts are now spreading into areas where they never used to be found. Aphids and greenfly are hatching earlier in the year and eating young, delicate seedlings.
Around the world, climate change was already having a negative effect on agriculture. In 2014, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a report saying that the world may reach ‘a threshold of global warming beyond which current agricultural practices can no longer support large human civilizations’ by the middle of the 21st century.
In 2019 it published reports explaining that millions of people already suffer from food insecurity due to climate change. This will especially be a problem as the rate of population growth accelerates. By 2030 the population is predicted to be over 8 billion and will mean food shortages and starvation for many.
In addition, there is the global impact of hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, earthquakes and wildfires that cause major disasters worldwide. These are all becoming more frequent and severe.
For more information about Sherwood Forest Friends of the Earth, visit Sherwood Forest FoE on Facebook or email sffofe@btinternet.com.
Pauline Meechan
Sherwood Forest Friends of the Earth