• Question: do you think global warming is already effecting us?

    Asked by anon-190583 to Matt, Maia, Lyndsay, Liam, Dionne, Brendan on 7 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Liam Taylor

      Liam Taylor answered on 7 Nov 2018:

      Without a doubt. I have seen the effects myself when I visited the Arctic this year. The change to icey regions in particular is phenomenal. But also, coral reefs are dying at an incredible speed. Animals and plants are not adapting fast enough and are becoming extinct. And people are already having to move out of their homes because of sea-level rise. In the UK, our winters are becoming wetter (which leads to more floods) and our summers are becoming hotter. It has been getting steadily worse for a few decades now, and we need to take action right now to stop the very bad impacts from happening.

    • Photo: Dionne Turnbull

      Dionne Turnbull answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Yes for sure. And the speed of the change is a big problem. Everything in nature works together in a delicate balance – food chains, habitats etc, and when something changes too fast then everything can be affected.

      Global warming is a problem in food production because it changes what crops we can grow where. Some areas might flood when they didn’t used to, or some may get drought when they didn’t used to. Changes in temperature can also make crop diseases more likely – longer warmer summer’s (especially if warm and humid) might make potato blight an even bigger problem.

    • Photo: Brendan Marrinan

      Brendan Marrinan answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Climate Change (not global warming) is absolutely affecting us already. There are a lot of changes that are taking place across the globe including coral reefs dying out, animals and birds migrating into countries they didn’t live in before and an increase in the ice caps melting during the summer. BUT, the UK will be most affected by changes in the climate, we are predicted to get more rain, more severe storms, more severe heat waves and droughts (more extreme weather).

    • Photo: Matt Bower

      Matt Bower answered on 8 Nov 2018:

      Definitely. I think we are seeing more extremes of weather, receding sea ice in the Arctic and retreating glaciers in the mountains. In this country we are seeing heavier, more intense, rainfall events (as well as periods of drought) – and that makes it very difficult to get enough water of the right quality to treat for people to drink.

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