Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change, whether it happens naturally or as a result of anthropogenic activity, affects us all. Even if humans decided today to completely stop all fossil fuel burning, and tomorrow there were no additional anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions into the Earth's atmosphere, it would still take decades to millenia for the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere to be converted back to solid carbon. This process only happens on a global scale through plants taking in carbon dioxide and converting it back to solid carbon through photosynthesis. Additionally, positive feedback loops already occurring, such as ice and snow melting at the poles and lowering global albedo, will not stop suddenly, and will take decades to slow down and then begin to reverse.
For humans, climate change includes both positive and negative impacts, but the overwhelming majority of impacts are likely to be negative if humans do not prepare adequately and work on adapting to change. We'll revisit this topic more in-depth in a later module, but here you are given an overview of some of the types of impacts that will likely affect humans (and in some cases, already are) specifically related to agriculture.
Log into BBLearn and under Module 3, go to the Study Area and select Videos. Under Chapter 8, select the video "Temperatures and Agriculture: Science for a hungry world: Agriculture and Climate Change." Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1) Why does increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have the potential to actually be good for agriculture?
2) What are some of the challenges faced by developing countries associated with climate change and agriculture?
3) Why is it so important to have continuous satellite data in order to study impacts of climate change?
For humans, climate change includes both positive and negative impacts, but the overwhelming majority of impacts are likely to be negative if humans do not prepare adequately and work on adapting to change. We'll revisit this topic more in-depth in a later module, but here you are given an overview of some of the types of impacts that will likely affect humans (and in some cases, already are) specifically related to agriculture.
Log into BBLearn and under Module 3, go to the Study Area and select Videos. Under Chapter 8, select the video "Temperatures and Agriculture: Science for a hungry world: Agriculture and Climate Change." Watch the video and answer the following questions:
1) Why does increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have the potential to actually be good for agriculture?
2) What are some of the challenges faced by developing countries associated with climate change and agriculture?
3) Why is it so important to have continuous satellite data in order to study impacts of climate change?