Dimitrie Ghica School

Global Warming Effects

The climate changes that will result from global warming are extremely difficult to predict.  The weather is determined by so many factors that it is often compared to chaos by scientists.  Changing the temperature will likely have some effect on the planet's weather, but just what that effect will be is nearly impossible to predict.

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average.

Other effects could happen later this century, if warming continues. 

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
• Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
• Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.
• Less fresh water will be available.
• Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
• Extinction of species:Ecosystems will change—some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.  Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a similar pattern in Hudson Bay.  He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.

Here in Comanesti we already confronted to some Global warming effects. In 2005 our town has been flooded. There was the bigest flood of the last 50 years. Many families (1060 people) had to move from their own houses. 2.386 houses have been destroied. 3 people were declared dead and 1 disapeared. (source: Prefectura Bacau)
 

(source: Habitat for Humanity, www.inundatii.go.ro)

The cause of this catastrofal flood that affected about 27 localities is the DEFORESTATION.

 

(Source: Comanesti Town Hall - courtesy Mr. Viorel MIRON - Mayor)