Climate Change Essay

The weather has been completely different the last few years for us in Indiana because it has been warm winters and really hot summers. The bad thing about having warm winters is that it does not kill off the bugs for the summer months. It will make them worse than what they were the summer before and have greater risks for diseases from mosquitoes like malaria and diarrheal diseases. When we had a drought a few summers ago, too, it was hard for farmers to grow their crops and to supply enough food for people. Not having enough food could lead to malnutrition, which could be very harmful and even cause death to people. The weather has many effects for people around the world. The planet’s weather is expected to become not only warmer on average, but more variable, with more frequent and intense heat waves, droughts, and torrential rains. Warmer air holds more moisture, so the global hydrologic cycle is expected to accelerate and intensify, leading to violent storms and stronger hurricanes. In addition to their effects on infectious diseases, such extremes of weather pose direct physical risks to the humans in their path-heat stroke, drowning, dehydration, and injury. (DeWeerdt, 2007) If the weather continues to be more variable with extremely hot summers that will cause more injuries for people and for the planet. It would cause more heat strokes and higher death rates. The climate change will affect the weather and cause more serious storms that would be worse than Hurricane Katrina, the August 2005 storm that slammed into the U.S. Gulf Coast and inundated New Orleans. Scientists believe that we would expect to see more storms like that possibly even worse if the climate keeps changing. Another factor for climate change is over population in the world and they are interlinked in complex ways. Most obviously, population growth worsens climate change-more people on the planet means more carbon dioxide emissions. And Parry and Rosenzweig’s modeling of food security indicates that reducing the rate of global population growth would do more to reduce the number of hungry people in the world than would limit climate change. (DeWeerdt, 2007) Limiting the number of hungry people in the world would possibly limit the number of malnutrition people in the world. If the climate keeps changing  globally, food production is likely to decrease because the weather will not be the best in the parts of the world that crops are best grown. There are researchers from various institutions have been modeling the possible effects of climate change on production of the world’s staple grain crops: wheat, rice, maize, and soybeans. Their work integrates several complex computer models-of global climate, crop yields, world food trade, and various patterns of economic development and population growth-to predict future global agricultural production and the risk of hunger. Globalization will have to come into play for trade because some countries will be able to grow certain crops better than others. Not all countries can be the best at growing all crops. If everyone is able to help then we will all be able to lower malnutrition and help lower the hunger rate. Finally, much research on climate change and infectious disease has focused on vector-borne diseases, in which a pathogen is carried from one human host to another by a third species, often a mosquito or other type of insect. Common vector-borne diseases in developing countries include malaria and dengue fever; both transmitted by mosquitoes, and in developed countries Lyme disease, transmitted by ticks. (DeWeerdt, 2007) If the climate changes and people have to make manmade rivers to help their crops it could cause breeding areas for mosquitos or other types of insects that carry the diseases. The diseases can be extremely harmful and even cause death to humans and animals. The populations most at risk from the spread of malaria may be those at the margins of the disease’s present distribution in developing countries without good access to health care. As malaria invades these new areas, its effects may become more severe. â€Å"When you have an outbreak in an area where people are not immune, they’ve not been exposed to malaria regularly, mortality can be 20 or 30 percent,† Kristie Ebi says-compared to about 3 percent in areas where the disease is long established. Moreover, because malaria is such a common disease-infecting half a billion people each year and killing 1 to 2 million-a very slight increase in the relative risk of the disease can translate into hundreds of thousands of additional cases. (DeWeerdt, 2007) These numbers could rise if the climate is changing because weather temperatures will be warming than usually and increase breeding for insects. Overall, climate change is possible and it is happening. Everyone has had temperature changes in the summer and winter that were above normal. Our winters have not been extreme to kill off many of the insets and help with eliminating possible disease carrying insects. The weather also will affect the growth of food and need to start world trade to make sure we can try to eliminate hunger across the world. This could be difficult with worse storms that could happen with the climate change. It seems it is a circle because if there is bad weather it will affect our growth for food and the population to insects, such as mosquitos, will increase which will increase the diseases around the world. Works Cited DeWeerdt, S. (2007, May/June). Climate Change, Coming Home. Retrieved April 26, 2014, from WorldWatch Institue: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5019