IMPLICATIONS TO SOCIETY
Over the past decade, the amount of green house gases have been constantly increasing in the atmosphere, causing an increase in the average temperature of the earth surface. Though it might be a bit difficult to note such differences across the world due to the varying temperature differences across, there is no doubt that the natural temperatures have been altered tremendously. Although Global warming is a necessary process to keep the earth warm and prevent it from experiencing extreme cold temperatures, too much has had a lot of negative implications to life on Earth such as Rising sea levels , long dry spells , increase in the general temperature.
Implication 1 : Rising Sea levels
A warmer Earth would experience higher sea levels since the heat is transferred from the warmer land to the the oceans during the day.Thus, when materials are heated, they expand and this causes the sea water to expand result in the rise of sea levels.
Furthermore, the water from melting ice caps and glaciers can also enter the sea adding to the increase in the sea level. One important point to remember is that that when ice caps melt, there is no literal addition of water added to the oceans when the floating ice melts.It only replaces the volume of water that it originally displaced.
Implication 2: Bush Fires
There have been many bush fires in Singapore due to the long dry spell that occurred in summer last year in 2015.This caused many bush fires to start around the Punggol and East side in Singapore.This caused the pollutant’s standard index to reach all time high , due to the release of many fine dust and smoke particles released in the air.As a result, many Singaporeans around the affected areas experienced breathing difficulties .Furthermore, the weak winds and lack of rain further worsened the condition causing the air quality to remain unhealthy for a longer period of time.
Implication 3: Increase in Average Temperatures
Global warming also causes an increase in the average temperatures in Singapore.Studies have shown that there has been a mean increase in temperatures of about 1.5-2.5 degrees Celsius.This could cause dry spells ,and extreme heat waves that occur more frequently.As mentioned earlier this would cause increased wildfires. Temperatures in Singapore are expected to be an all time high in the second half of March in 2015. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has reported that the daily maximum temperature will be in the range of 33 to 35 degrees Celsius in March.
References:
1)http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-effects/health.html
2)https://www2.ucar.edu/news/backgrounders/impacts-global-warming-natural-systems
3)http://wattsupwiththat.com/