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GLOBAL WARMING!
And the effect on ecosystems!
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The film An Inconvenient Truth was a shock to the world in 2006 with Al Gore speaking
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about greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. In 1997 David Suzuki began talking about clean
energy and sustainable living in order to have a better world. Movie stars and celebrities today
are now on the bandwagon for eco-friendly lifestyles. Had anybody really considered these
problems before the global warming crisis became a trend? All these strange phenomena and
tragedies had a cause? Is the human race responsible for this extreme change to the world?
Scientists have been going crazy looking for theories and patterns that are directly related to
climate change. These kinds of questions began piling up in the media as the world braced itself
for the hyper speed blast forward into today’s eco- friendly world. Today, society is taking
global warming more seriously than ever, green bins, energy saving light bulbs, fabric bags,
hybrid cars and more. Save the environment: if everyone does a little bit, then we can save the
planet. This begs the question, how much longer does the planet really have to live if it has been
impacted this severely already? The effects of greenhouse gasses and climate change are being
seen around the world and are more noticeable in unexpected places. Everything in nature is
connected and global warming directly effects vital ecosystems and habitats negatively.!
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I chose to study the long term effects of global warming because it is a current, relevant
topic in the world today. Besides personal interest and curiosity, I chose this topic to gain
knowledge and to further inform the people around me. The Y generation will be the head of the
population one day and in order to protect the health of the planet for the future, this generation
must be educated now, therefore this is the first step in protecting the environment and
preserving our world. It is never too early to start understanding and gathering knowledge
because when generation Y steps into authority, we will be prepared to face the problems head
on with the knowledge and power to make a difference in the world. !
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The term global warming is associated with the phrase ‘climate change’ and the
difference is that global warming is the product of greenhouse gas emissions (water vapour,
carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, CFCs) and solar reflection, while climate change
is any change in an average temperature of something’s properties (temperature, precipitation
etc.) over a long period of time. (Nodvin, 2008)
NASA released its results from a study on Land and Ocean Temperatures that directly
proves both climate change and global warming because there is a positive correlation between
the date and the temperature increase from 1880 - 2009. !
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These temperatures (although cannot be directly explained by global warming) certainly prove
the effects of greenhouse gas emissions. This quote by Dr. Moti Nissani, an Instructor at Wayne
State University explains greenhouse gases. This explanation is directly inspired by Al Gore’s
speech in the movie An Inconvenient Truth, “Sunlight arrives here on earth, giving us light. Some of
the light hits the ground, readily penetrating it, and then gets converted into heat radiation. Now, the air
has just a little bit of CO2 in it. That CO2 acts a bit like the glass in a greenhouse, or a sweater: it
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traps the heat, thus keeping the earth warm and comfortable. But now we’re increasing the
amount of CO2 and other greenhouse gases such as methane (natural gas), and the earth is getting
warmer.” (Moti, 2006). This concept fits perfectly into the explanation of why the Earth’s
atmosphere is increasing in temperature.
It has been found by many studies that the impacts from global warming are quite
noticeable and predictable. For example the increased heat in the atmosphere is causing the
power and frequency of hurricanes to increase. It is impossible to know whether hurricanes and
tropical disaster storms are caused by global warming but by comparing the statistical data
between the ocean temperature changes and the intensity of hurricanes, it will show to be
causation (Rahmstorf, 2005). Some studies have analysed the effect that plants are being
subjected to because of global warming and climate change. A recent study by Rice University
concluded that plant ecosystems that are subjected to abnormally warm weather had a decrease
in CO2 absorption by two years (Hirsch, 2008). Al Gore mentioned the same thing in An
Inconvenient Truth, recorded levels of carbon seem to rise and fall twice every year, and this is
because spring and summer are when plants absorb the most carbon dioxide and in winter and
fall they release it back into the atmosphere. If plants that are exposed to higher temperatures
have a delayed absorption response, imagine the effect on the ozone layer with tons and tons of
carbon dioxide that is not being absorbed by plants. Even animals are being affected by the
increased temperatures of land and sea, being required to either evacuate their habitats or adapt
to new changes in temperature, loss of food or even declining habitat. Consequently 20% of all
fragile ecosystem habitats could be lost due to increasing temperature. (Hirsch, 2005). The rising
concern in the scientific field has induced more and more studies and inquiries all around the
world and the results are conclusive.
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Anything natural is an ecosystem with a habitat; therefore, anything that disrupts that ecosystem
could cause devastating consequences. Some effects from global warming that disrupt
ecosystems include extreme weather (storms, floods, and droughts), species in peril (extinction,
at risk, in danger), water resources in danger (levels, temperatures, purity, transportation, health)
and impact on forests (fires, receding tree lines, shifting, and infestation). Everything in the
world is so interconnected that even if one of these subjects were to be severely damaged, it
would directly impact billions of other natural things, throwing nature into a tailspin.
!! I found that because of global warming and climate change, the number of tropical
Atlantic storms per year increase and therefore this directly affects natural ecosystems through
destruction. > GRAPH ON NEXT PAGE.
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This graph clearly demonstrates that there is a positive correlation between the increase in years
and the number of storms per year and this can also be connected to NASA’s land and ocean
temperature increase graph because both graphs are steadily increasing. As was stated
previously, extreme weather is an effect of global warming and in turn is an extremely
destructive force on numerous other ecosystems. Hurricane Katrina caused billions of dollars
worth of property damage but the environmental damage was much worse and had long term
effects. Beach erosion occurred, breeding land for various types of animals was lost, 30% of
forest land was destroyed out of the total area hit and about 20% of local marshes were destroyed
because of the storm (Sheikh, 2005). Moreover, it was also found that the intensity of hurricanes
per year is on a positive incline and in direct correlation with the frequency of storms per year
and the temperature increase.
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The intensity of a hurricane, wind, rain, debris damage and floods is measured on a Saffir-
Simpson scale. This scale measures the amount of potential damage that a hurricane could cause,
both environmentally and economically. This scale is
divided into 5 sections by category, wind, pressure, storm
surge and potential flooding/destruction. Further proof that
increases in global warming are affecting weather is the
suggestion by several news columnists who are suggesting
the introduction of a category 6 to the Saffir -Simpson scale
(Than, 2005). Level one includes damage to mobile homes,
shrubbery and trees, flooding, with little damage to buildings. Level two damage is all of level
one damage plus additional structural damage. Level three involves intense building damage,
debris flying and inland flooding. Level four involves structure damage, erosion of beaches and
increased flooding. Level five involves entire road flooding, most building failures and torrential
destruction. With the increase in levels, also comes the increase in damage, and even though the
scale is direct more towards damage for society, nature takes a much more severe beating from
the vicious tropical storm.
With every storm, the ability to reconstruct and salvage becomes an immensely large
task, but nature takes at least quadruple the amount of time to recuperate. The destruction of
natural ecosystems is not something that is easily regenerated, it takes time and effort for vital
habitats to return to natural working order ( if at all) and with the hurricane intensity and
frequency increasing every year, nature is not repairing quickly - or strongly enough to keep up.
With a history of category 5 hurricanes occurring very rarely, the past few years of multiple
category 5s has been ground breaking and extremely informative, but with a heavy price. Natural
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restoration is first in line to be destroyed repeatedly when there are multiple storms per year that
are increasing in strength every time (see figure 2.).
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“The number of Category 4 and 5 hurricanes has almost doubled in the last 30 years.” (An
Inconvenient Truth: the science). The results published on the website do not correlate with the
graph that I have made. This statement from An Inconvenient Truth was “proved” by an MIT
study in 2005 called INCREASING DESTRUCTIVENESS OF TROPICAL CYCLONES OVER THE
PAST 30 YEARS. The results were published even though the first sentence was “Theory and
modelling predict that hurricane intensity should increase with increasing global mean
temperatures, but work on the detection of trends in hurricane activity has focused mostly on
their frequency and shows no trend.” (Emanuel, 2005) Unfortunately, my results proved to
having a different conclusion, that the intensity of the storms has only increased by
approximately 30% but not doubling.
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Furthermore, a different kind of extreme weather also has been show as increasing
through historical records – tornados. Tornados, unlike hurricanes, move only on land and by
definition from the Glossary of Meteorology “A violently rotating column of air, in contact with
the ground, either pendant from a cumuliform cloud or underneath a cumuliform cloud, and
often (but not always) visible as a funnel cloud.” Because it is very hard to predict tornados (or
twisters, as they are more commonly known as) the scale that is used to rate the damage caused
is called a Fujita Scale. This scale is very similar to the scale used for rating a hurricane, but
measurement of wind force is slightly different and also assesses the amount of damage done.
From records, it is shown that the number of tornados per year has been steadily increasing and
correlates to the increase in land and ocean temperature such as on the graph from NASA.!
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Tornados are lightening speed funnels that rip apart
anything in their path – which includes buildings and vegetation.
Tornados disrupt natural ecosystems because they cause severe
disturbances to natural. The land ecosystems that are susceptible
do have a chance at re-growing from their roots, but adaption to
these events is not always guaranteed, especially if the occurrences
happen multiple times a year with increasing force. The Fujita Scale on which tornados’ power
is measured was updated in February 2007 to bring it more in line with the hurricane wind force
scale.
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It is visible that the growing season is increasing with the year based on the information from
European studies which appears to be in direct correlation with the previous NASA graph of
increasing land and ocean temperatures. The increase in growing season length could be viewed
as either a positive or negative outcome because there is more food available, there will be more
animals coming out of hibernation sooner, but if there are more animals around then the natural
effect will be out of balance because the predators and prey will be out of proportion.
Globally
• 0.6°C increase in 20th century
• 20th century likely the warmest of the
millennium
N. Hemisphere
• 1990s warmest decade
• 1998 warmest year in instrumental record,
since 1860s
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As it is shown, the global temperature is on the rise and this means that an exceeding
number of ecosystems are affected. Most plant and animals species live in a narrow range of
temperature, adapting when the climate increases or decreases within their habitat.
Unfortunately, many species of animals and plants are unable to keep up with the break -neck
pace of global warming by adapting or migrating.
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Because the line of best fit is not 100% accurate, these predictions are not completely
accurate and it must also be taken into account the fact that this graph is not a consistent positive
correlation.
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From the data that is plotted on this graph, it is clear to see from the trend line that there is a
positive upward s slope to the information and it so the number of hurricanes will continue to
rise in the future most likely. These results are not professionally scientific.
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This information shows that there is a positive upward incline to the number of tornados per year
and it will continue to do so in the future even though there is a trend towards a lessening of
strength of these storms.
Global Climate Model Project by the
IPCC !
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This graph shows that the recent years from 2000 on have been the warmest on record and at the rate that
the world is increasing at, by 2100 there will be a global temperature of 5.8 degrees.
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The Earth has been subjected to intense damage already and if it continues to be abused by
people then how long will it really be able to sustain life while maintaining its own? Al Gore
uses the analogy of the earth breathing and taking one breath per year. It takes one year for the
world to take a breath and humans take approximately 17,280 breaths in a day. And 365 days in
a year and approximately 80 years in a life time. For humans that would be 504,576,000 breaths
before death but if it takes the earth one year to take one breath, what is the ratio for the planet?
This could be discovered and also to be taken into consideration are some of the effects that
global warming is already causing, for example, breaths per year may become one breath per
every two years because of the study from Rice University that was previously discussed about
the absorption rate of CO2 in plants.
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It has been shown that the effects of global warming severely impact the ecosystems of the world
and some answered questions could especially help scientist predict future problems and possibly
to help nature conservation to be pro-active. Some questions that could be beneficial include:
• If a certain type of natural ecosystem is in peril, what animals/plants would be affected by
that ecosystem’s demise?
• If hurricanes/tornados are steadily increasing – how can this help developers to better
design sustainable structures and incorporate natural ecosystems into their developments?
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• If a certain number of hurricanes/tornados occurred within the same year and was a
record – what was so special about that year that could predict future
hurricanes/tornados?
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If this investigation were to be continued, one may want to study the glacial melting rates and
plot the findings against the data of glacier area to prove that global warming is affecting colder
regions just as equally as warmer climate ecosystems. One may also feel the desire to create a
time line with all natural phenomena occurring and plot it against an international temperature
chart to prove that global warming has deeply affected natural ecosystems, weather patterns, sea
levels, habitats and wildlife migration. Temperature change alone caused by mankind’s influence
is not the only factor to be taken into consideration, man’s direct influence such as hunting,
building, development, mining, fishing, deforestation, and pipelines also affect patterns of
change within the world. !
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I2?2+"+2'*, on my project: !
Although my project was successfully completed, there were some setbacks that hindered my
results. My original mindset was to specifically relate global warming to the impact on animals’
habitat and ecosystems, unfortunately the only information published on the internet are theories
about animals’ movement, not actual statistics. There was no tabular data available on the
internet concerning total animal population increases and decreases. The only animal tabular
data that I was able to find, I could not directly talk about causation to global warming because
the causes of those increases and decreases could be created by anything: human impacts from
development, deforestation, or even pollution could be causing the changes, everything was just
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speculation. There have been initiated tagging systems for animal tracking, but no overall census
about the total number of animals or their movement. I found some percentage data;
unfortunately without statistical data it would be useless in graphing long term effects. Therefore
I was not able to generate any tabular data on animals. Also, any research available on the
internet about migratory movement involved a small sample of animals and then the results were
projected on the whole arctic and then studies were repeated every 2-5 years, therefore there
were no historical numbers or accurate current numbers to use. The next approach was to go
bigger, see what impact global warming has on weather and therefore an impact on ecosystems.
Unfortunately, when researching the annual mean rainfall and snowfall, there was no total
tabular data available. The Environment Canada website has thousands of reporting stations all
over Canada but there has been no effort made to tabulate the data as a national mean. Another
problem that was the fact that there was a lack of recorded historical data, available records only
go back as far as 50-60 years and therefore it is impossible to create the thousand year trend and
what impact global warming really has had overall asides from attaining a graph from a national
weather site that has data and we can only assume to be correct.!
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Through researching weather patterns that directly affect natural habitats and
ecosystems, I discovered many new things. As icebergs in the ocean melt, they do not contribute
to the rise of water/sea/ocean levels, because they have already displaced the water from the
iceberg. Also, through research on the NASA website, I have discovered that NASA runs many
global weather monitoring programs, even though space travel is still the main priority. For
example there is the, Earth Observing System Data and Information System, and there are
hundreds of orbital devices transmitting natural weather changes back to earth such as the ICES
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spacecraft that delivers current information on changing surface temperatures, MODIS on is on
both Terra and Aqua satellites and the POES spacecraft is part of NASA’s sister agency NOAA.
The majority of the information that is produced and distributed is transmitted directly from
space with more reliable accuracy than human correlated data that is susceptible to human error.
It was also ironic to find that when studying the hurricane and tornado patterns that the two were
very much connected because tornados occur from January to June and hurricanes occur from
June to January. !
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Through the research that was completed, there were numerous constrictions that were faced in
order to accumulate accurate data, for example in order to continue reading an article I was
constantly pestered to donate and/or purchase to the website. Also the information that I
gathered had to be based on consistent uniform measurement with specific details over a long
period of time. Ex. Consistent measurement: weather recording stations at the same location over
a period of years. Inconsistent data: i.e. 1 herd of 32 caribou tagged five years ago has decreased
in size 9% therefore all of the herds in the arctic are declining in size as a total population as a
result of global warming. So that it would be consistent tabular data to plot on a graph and use
examples in my work. But aside from those minor setbacks I was able to complete the
assignment with accuracy and informative conclusions.
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• Barry, Scott, Shamburger, Sam (2007) Enhanced Fujita Scale. Retrieved on
December 10, 2008 from !"##$%&&'''()*"(+,--(.,/&01"&2-34&2-34-0-5-67689:($"$!
!
• Boyd, Jade et Al. (2008) Rice University Study: Global warming's ecosystem double
whammy. Retrieved on December 9, 2008 from "##$%&&'''(3;<=-(*=1;(;<>&3;<=-&?;')@,#(-)$ABCDEFGHEIJHDFKK77KJL+HDF8K::8M8:6!
!
• Hirsch, Tim (2005) BBC news: Animals 'hit’ by global warming. Retrieved
December 8, 2008 from!
!"##$%&&+;')(441(1,(>N&O&"=&)1=;+1;&+-#>*;&7PKP8OM()#3!
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• Emanuel, Kerry (2005). Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past
30 years. Retrieved on December 12, 2008. "##$%&&'''(-#3(1"(1-3(-1(>N&Q3-*=-&@$-$;*)&+-#>*;6PR6M($<S!
!
• Nissani, Moti (2006). Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth: An Interpretive Synopsis of the
Film. Retrieved December 16 , 2008 from "##$%&&'''(=)('-5+;(;<>&3+=))-+=&TUVETW@&H+1,+/;+=;+#X*>#"L>33-*5("#3!
!
• Nodvin, Stephen C. (2008) The Earth Encyclopaedia: Global Warming. Retrieved on
December 16, 2008 from!!
"##$%&&'''(;,;-*#"(,*.&-*#=10;&V0,4-0Y'-*3=+.!
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• Rahmstorf, Stefan et. Al. (2005) Hurricanes and Global Warming - Is There a
Connection? Retrieved on December 17, 2008 from "##$%&&'''(*;-010=3-#;(,*.&=+<;Z($"$A$FK[K!
!
• Sheikh, Pervaze A. (2005).!The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Biological Resources
Retrieved December 19, 2008 from!
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• Than, Ker (2005). Wilma's Rage Suggests New Hurricane Categories Needed.
Retrieved on December 16, 2008 from "##$%&&'''(0=/;)1=;+1;(1,3&;+/=*,+3;+#&6:K6O6Y">**=1-+;Y'=+<)("#30!
• Webster, P. J., Holland, G. J., Curry, J. A., Chang, H.-R. (2005) Changes in Tropical
Cyclone Number, Duration, and Intensity in a Warming Environment. Retrieved on
December 15, 2008 from!
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• Study of the global ecosystem (information not available) "##$%&&<1)<(NKO(+/(>)&<")&10-))&BC]LE?&@=,0,.5&@=,0,.5&^"-$#;*_O6P7&P7(K_O6];1#>*;_
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• !"#$%&'(()*+$',$-#.#'*'&'/+!9&&ABYY,/')*('',.@>,**$1A.$''>%(/Y)*('',.@Y+.(-'$Z'[&\A[C4!
