Seven things you didn't know about climate change affects
January
18, 2015 Written By Starts
at Sixty Writers in Living
A great deal of us argue and bicker
about the existence of climate change, with some fiercely contesting the
existence of the phenomenon, and others insisting that it is indeed true.
What we don’t think
or talk about is how climate change affects us right now. Many of us
appear to think that the impacts of a warmer earth won’t be felt
until decades down the road, perhaps when the ocean is suddenly washing up at
your (once) hillside residence.
Sorry to burst your
bubble, but there are already some very real impacts being each day by global
warming. Some of which may surprise you.
1. Food prices
Our shifting
climate is causing food prices around the world to increase as the maintenance
and growth of crops becomes a whole lot harder to do. As the air gets warmer,
larger and more frequent storms are beginning to smash crops
worldwide.
Remember the famous
banana shortage caused when Cyclone Yasi devastated Queensland banana
plantations in 2011? Well this is could just be the tip of the iceberg.
Imagine if we had
four Cyclone Yasi’s hit Australia in one summer. Prices would surge for a whole
variety of groceries, and not just on your sweet little bananas.
2. Wine and general alcohol production
Even worse than
food price increases has to be a rise in alcohol prices.
If it’s the end of
the world, you’re going to want a drink, but you’re favourite Sauvignon Blanc
may become too expensive to afford when the cost of harvesting
grapes increases.
Similarly, beer
will be affected as climate change endangers clean water, quality
barley, and ample hops. This means that the small craft beer you love and
crave may be in danger of shutting down when hops and barley become more
scarce. These will truly be dark days indeed.
3. Fresh water
You need another
expense like you need a hole in your head – water is going to increase in
price.
Severe droughts,
increased evaporation and changes in precipitation patterns are impacting water
levels in streams, rivers, dams and lakes worldwide.
Continued below . . . .
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You may think
they’re just being unfair, but this is largely what caused your local
council to increase the water rates in previous years. Bet you’re starting
to feel a bit guilty for that rude letter you wrote.
4. Power
You know what else
is going to get more expensive? Your power bill… sigh.
As the planet heats
up, it’s going to become more expensive and harder to ship fuel across the
world. Non-renewable fuel sources will then subsequently increase, forcing
power company’s to increase electricity prices.
On the other hand,
if the world continues to adopt renewable power sources, then this problem has
a great chance of being fixed (hint hint to the government).
5. Allergies and asthma
This one is going
to bleed your money indirectly.
A warmer climate
will impact on those who are prone to allergies and asthma as the air will
become denser with pollution, dust and water vapour. As your allergies and/or
asthma worsens, think about the increased costs when you’re refilling that
asthma puffer or buying more tissues and nasal sprays.
6. Coffee
If you’re not a
morning person, this may bring a tear to your eye.
Arabica, the
most-consumed coffee species, could go extinct in the wild in 70 years, due
to increasing temperatures and a climate change-charged deadly fungus.
This would also put roughly 25 million coffee growers and distributors out of
business, and drive coffee prices up substantially.
7. Jeans
Is nothing sacred?
Even our jeans are under threat from a changing climate. Water shortages and
drought are having an impact on cotton production, causing price fluctuations
and even a shortage in denim. So for those looking to go out and start the
double denim craze again, you may be plum out of luck.
Peter’s
Piece
Whoever wrote this
article appears to be a member of a group with so much time on their hands that they've taken to assaulting the world with reams of wordy waste . . . . Ooops! That could be me too. I’m the blogger
and author, who writes about every subject under the sun . . . . There I go
again, the sun . . . . The sun is the problem. There’s just too much hot air,
and some people should understand that they can be harmed by standing out in it
too long.
But, seriously, the
above article cannot be taken seriously. It is loaded with generalities,
popular catch-cries, and emotive claptrap, while lacking authoritative
references or sources. It’s just a collection of popular myths, aligned with
one side of a divided scientific community. Incidentally, no one pays me to
write about global warming/climate change and, unlike Al Gore, I don’t live in
a mansion on a hill, burning enough electricity to run a medium size shopping
mall.
The fact is that
weather, climate and sea levels have been constantly changing throughout the
entire span of traceable history, but our memories of past weather and climate
is severely limited. Firstly, because some of us have not yet lived through
very many years, but also because we tend to remember only some of the most
recent events in our lives. Yes, we all know what the weather was like
yesterday. The day before that is a little harder to recall, and the weather of
a week or month ago, is pretty much forgotten. What about the weather in the
year 2005? Was it wet or dry, windy or calm, hot or cold?
It is our short
term memory that makes it easy to be led into believing that extreme weather
events and their regularity are increasing. However, meteorological records
tell a different story and, so far, the 21st century has yet to
claim a new record for any kind of weather event. The 21st century
is also yet to claim a new record for floods, tornados, volcanic eruptions,
earthquakes, famine, disease, war, terrorism, or any other catastrophes,
natural or man-made.
There can be little
doubt that man can wreak havoc on the planet, but change the weather or
climate? No. In fact during the 20th century man spent millions of
dollars trying to change the weather, and failed every time. Remember when
cloud seeding with dry ice was popular in the hope that it would bring rain? And do you remember when Green parties said
that nuclear weapons could bring on a nuclear winter? If man could change the
weather, there would be no need to close airports due to fog or wind. Icy roads
could be a thing of the past too. If man could do all these things there would
be no need for a bad year on the farm, or in the orchard, because it would just
be a simple matter of selecting the climate and pressing Enter.
‘Starts at Sixty
Writers’ have got some things backwards, and in other areas they contradict
themselves. Take their view on food production. They claim that food production
will suffer because of more frequent storms but, if storms did become more
frequent, which is unlikely, then new strains would develop that were storm
resistant. That’s how nature works; each species adapts to change. Others say
that food production would suffer due to higher temperatures, but that would
help expand production, because crops could be grown in areas that are currently
too cold to produce food. Who knows, at some time in the future bananas may be
grown in Siberia or in Antarctica.
Then they write
about a shortage of water, but once again they are wide of the mark. Water
cannot be destroyed. It can only be recycled. However, the amount of fresh
water can be increased by treating sea water. Water is also easier to transport
from place to place than ever before. Water is not a problem.
Cotton is going to
be scarce and jeans will be expensive, they say. So what? If the climate is
warmer, go without clothes, save money.
When one looks at
all the claims about global warming (sorry that’s the old catch-cry) it’s
called climate change now, you have a lot of contradictions. We are told that
the weather will get wetter and drier, hotter and colder, windier and calmer,
but that’s just what the weather does when everything is normal. Forget about
it. It has been going on for millions of years, and long before man could have
an effect, accidentally or intentionally. And all the time sea levels have been
rising and falling, and the sun has been rising and setting.
But don’t be
alarmed about global warming. When Icarus is reincarnated, with his wax wings,
he’ll push the sun further away. Man can do anything.
