GLOBAL WARMING

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 . . . . 

Warning!

Stay out of the sun.

It's safer indoors with a good book!

To download a free sample read, click here

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 21^st century has yet to claim a new record for any kind of weather event. The 21^st 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.

Connect with Peter on Facebook or Twitter

There can be little doubt that man can wreak havoc on the planet, but change the weather or climate? No. In fact during the 20^th 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.

Highway America