Climate Change

As I wish to focus on weather and mapping I decided it would be best to look at a book which explains climate change and what the world will be like in the next few hundred years. The book is rather scientific so I struggled understanding the majority of it due to the key words that were used,but I did find it somewhat informative.

In the book it explains how climate change is a typical thing for our planet to do, in fact we are unsure of the Earth's history due to climate change. It says that 50 million years ago the world was largely or entirely ice free and the last time CO2 levels were high was 50-100 million years ago, before the planet cooled itself down. "This dramatic regional cooling would occur in a world experiencing overall warming."

What makes the CO2 levels increase is of the human race burning fossil fuels. From the large amount of CO2, it creates Global Warming which then causes the melting of polar  permafrost. It is theorised that the more the CO2 levels go up there will be an expansion of trees into the 'now-frozen' north, and also over the next several thousand years the excess CO2 will make the seawater more acidic. For my idea of drawing a future world map, I can possibly draw trees in the North pole and the current forests all chopped down.

The retreating of sea ice has already begun, but will most likely take hundreds of years to melt the deeper sub surface permafrost.The melting of the ice will lead to the global rise of the sea level in the future. Over a century, it will increase by a foot. "Some projections put the rise by this time at 1 to 2 meters, enough for sea water to flood a kilo meter or more into flat, low lying coastal regions". From reading this I have an idea of flooding the map so it wouldn't look the same as it is now; the United Kingdom will probably be covered quite a bit in water, and countries will look thinner (maybe more islands).What makes the CO2 levels increase is of the human race burning fossil fuels.
The melting of ice also endangers habitats of polar bears and the rest of the polar ecosystem.

There is also a concern to people moving to the coast as it makes them very vulnerable to typhoons and hurricanes. Scientists have suggested that there will be an increase in hurricanes due to global warming, but this prediction is somewhat speculative. Also because of the climate getting warmer it could increase more frequent and widespread tropical diseases.

There is apparently a way to help prevent the amount of greenhouse gases, by pumping the CO2 emissions into the ocean. However, it would cost way too much money as not all factories are by the coast. Because we are so focused on the cost of things rather than what they can do for the planet and people, this will never happen (my thought anyway).

From reading this book to get a basic idea on climate change, I now know more on it and how it could help with my work: higher temperatures, hurricanes, floods. So now I know how I can document my future world map,





Earth's Climate, Past and Future by William F. Auddiman