Below are the general major concerns associated with climate change, most of which were taken from the IPPC's report. If you want to learn more about the science of climate change and the history of the Earth's climate, click on climate science above. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, to see what you can do to reduce climate change, click on take action.


Catastrophic Climate Change: The greatest worry with climate change is that we will induce a dramatic shift in the climate system. This means that instead of the every location warming a few degrees, we would instead see a shift in the patterns of ocean and wind currents as the earth responds to a different climate. This could mean huge local shifts in climate--some locations becoming far colder than usual, others far warmer. This would give civilizations which have been used to a specific climate great trials in adapting. We know that shifts like this have happened, most likely due to changes in the currents of the Northern Atlantic Ocean (1).

Rise in sea level: The best guess from scientists is that the sea level will rise about half a meter, or a foot and a half, in this century due to melting glaciers and the fact that water expands when it gets warmer. This could flood many low lying coast areas, and also increase the swell of tropical storms and hurricanes.

Increase in hurricane and storm strength (1): It is estimated that warmer ocean temperatures will result in more powerful, and perhaps more frequent hurricanes.

Health risks: A warmer temperature is likely to increase the range of tropical diseases such as malaria (1), as mosquitoes, which carry the disease, survive better in warmer temperatures. Also, warmer temperatures could lead to more heat related deaths in already hot cities such as Mexico City or Santiago in Chile.

Agriculture: Almost all climate and crop models show that climate change will hurt yields throughout Latin America, as the temperature raises above the optimum temperature for crops. Currently about 30 to 40% of the population in Latin America works in agriculture. Also, many of the poorest people in agriculture eat the food they grow, and a decrease in yields would be the most difficult for them.

Biodiversity loss: Latin America has perhaps the greatest biodiversity in the world--the Amazon rainforest has countless species that have not even been documented. Seven of the world's most diverse and threatened areas are in Latin America and climate change has the potential to push many species to extinction.

Water security/insecurity: It is difficult to predict exactly how rain patterns will change with climate change, but they will likely change significantly. Some regions will see more rain, others less. Regions that rely on snowmelt to store water, however, such as the Western United States and many countries along the Andes, will see more precipitation fall as rain and thus either have to build more dams or use less water.

Below are the global yearly average results from the Hadley Center for Climate Change's version 3 model. This model assumes that we don't make major cuts in our emissions of CO2, and that the world economy grows as generally predicted over the next century (this is the 'is92a' scenario). Read more on these assumptions and scenarios here.

The model alarmingly shows the Amazon basin warming by over 5 degrees C (9 degrees F) and drying out substantially. This would wipe out the entire Amazon rainforest and replace it with savannah. There are other climate models, and not all show this result (this model has 'medium sensitivity', so it is not extreme). Indeed, predicting future climate is like trying to predict the what the weather will be like in a week. There is a lot of uncertainty. Nonetheless, this is a possibility. To see what the other general effects of the region, many of which are more certain, go to All Countries, or look at the individual country links above.

  source: http://www.metoffice.com/research/hadleycentre/models/modeldata.html