Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumAbout.com on the Advantages of Global Warming
The last one's my favorite.
Arctic, Antarctic, Siberia, and other frozen regions of earth may experience more plant growth and milder climates.
The next ice age may be prevented from occurring.
Northwest Passage through Canada's formerly-icy north opens up to sea transportation.
Less need for energy consumption to warm cold places.
Fewer deaths or injuries due to cold weather.
Longer growing seasons could mean increased agricultural production in some local areas.
Mountains increase in height due to melting glaciers, becoming higher as they rebound against the missing weight of the ice.
Boundary disputes between countries over low-lying islands will disappear.
AldoLeopold
(617 posts)Disadvantages of Global Warming
Ocean circulation disrupted, disrupting and having unknown effects on world climate.
Higher sea level leading to flooding of low-lying lands and deaths and disease from flood and evacuation.
Deserts get drier leaving to increased desertification.
Changes to agricultural production that can lead to food shortages.
Water shortages in already water-scarce areas.
Starvation, malnutrition, and increased deaths due to food and crop shortages.
More extreme weather and an increased frequency of severe and catastrophic storms.
Increased disease in humans and animals.
Increased deaths from heat waves.
Extinction of additional species of animals and plants.
Loss of animal and plant habitats.
Increased emigration of those from poorer or low-lying countries to wealthier or higher countries seeking better (or non-deadly) conditions.
Additional use of energy resources for cooling needs.
Increased air pollution.
Increased allergy and asthma rates due to earlier blooming of plants.
Melt of permafrost leads to destruction of structures, landslides, and avalanches.
Permanent loss of glaciers and ice sheets.
Cultural or heritage sites destroyed faster due to increased extremes.
Increased acidity of rainfall.
Earlier drying of forests leading to increased forest fires in size and intensity.
Increased cost of insurance as insurers pay out more claims resulting from increasingly large disasters.
Aggressiveness will increase, leading to an increase in the murder rate.
rurallib
(62,416 posts)took some Fox figuring to find the silver lining for global warming
NoOneMan
(4,795 posts)Less need to warm your home turns into a greater need to blast the air conditioner
Fewer cold weather deaths comes with more deaths from famine and drowning.
Boundary disputes between countries over low-lying islands transform into resource wars to feed starving, displaced masses
Longer growing seasons is an absolute myth, as agriculture will move northward where they have much shorter days half of the year.
How can anyone think that the diminishing of a "bad" in a stable world will not be potentially replaced by a "worse" in an unstable world?
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)*sigh* I suppose I'd better add this:
pscot
(21,024 posts)This forum pulses with irony. We'd be catatonic without it.