Effects of Global warming
The biggest effect of Global warming is the increase in the planet’s temperature. The increase in temperature is linked to the climate change that the planet is currently experiencing. So what are the effects? Since the temperature is rising rapidly, the planet’s ice is melting is rapid speed. So why is it that important? The large mass of ice is responsible to deflecting the sun’s rays. The greenhouse gases are responsible for trapping the heat for the sun. But too much heat trapped in the planet is not good either. Another downside if the planet’s ice melts is the increase in the planet’s sea level. A large percentage of the world’s population resides in low lying areas. If sea level increases, millions of people would be relocated. When that happen a large number of people would have problem finding shelter, food to eat and clean water to drink.
Since the large mass of ice is melting, and the amount of the sun rays deflected is decreasing, the planet’s waters absorbs the heat. How bad could that be? Studies have shown that a storm’s intensity increases when it passes warm water. That is the case with Hurricane Katrina which hit the United States and destroyed properties and claimed the lives of a lot of people in New Orleans.
Another effect of the warming body of water is the bleaching. A lot of animal species in the ocean and sea rely on coral reef for their source of food. Bleaching is destroying the Coral reefs leaving a lot of marine species vulnerable to extinction. Global warming does not only affect marine animals. Certain animal species rely on the temperature of their habitat to survive. Penguins and Polar Bears are among the animals that rely on cold climate to survive. Since the ice is melting, certain species travel far distance to find an suitable place to live and most of the animals do not survive traveling the long distance.
Another effect of Global warming is the decrease and increase of the amount of precipitation. Last year, the Philippines was hit by two powerful storms Peping and Ondoy. The amount of rainfall during typhoon Ondoy was a month’s worth of rain. The number of occurrence of floods and landslide while also increase. The other side of change of the amount of precipitation is drought. During the early months of the year, the country has experience the El Nino Phenomenon. Droughts has ravage crop and almost put the country at risk of a water crisis. The drought intensified when the summer season in Philippines started. The heat in Metro Manila has reached as high as 38 degrees Celsius this summer.
The Philippines is at high risk to effects of global warming. Even though there are no large masses of ice near the archipelago, parts of the country is still at risk of being submerged if the sea level increases. There are lots of densely populated areas in the Philippines which are located on low lying areas. The drought this year was particularly a big burden to the country. Crops were destroyed which caused the prices of basic needs to increase. The country almost faced a water crisis as efforts to find a solution to the declining water supply such as cloud seeding proved ineffective.
