Question

1. What is the evidence that climate change is occurring? 2. What is the evidence that humans were impacting the bird species extinct on Abaco? 3. What are the consequences of climate change and global warming? 4. What can a community do to prevent climate change? Compare the case of US, Europe and Asia.

Answer 1

Ans 1: The evidences that show that climate change is occurring are as follows:

A) Global Temperature Rise

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere.

Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with the five warmest years on record taking place since 2010.

Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year — from January through September, with the exception of June — were the warmest on record for those respective months.

B) Warming Oceans

The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

C) Decreased Snow cover

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier

D) Rise in the Sea level

Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century.

Ans 2:

The fossils revealed that people have done more to deplete animal species than the shift of the last ice age.

Sawmill Sink, a flooded sinkhole cave or “blue hole” on Abaco Island in the Bahamas, yielded 95 species of ice-age vertebrates, the most ever found on any Caribbean island. Thirty-nine of those species no longer exist on Abaco Island.

The warmer, wetter climate and rising sea levels that occurred from 15,000 to 9,000 years ago during the transition from the last ice age to the present climate probably led to the disappearance on Abaco of at least 17 species of birds — species characteristic of open habitats like pine woodlands and grasslands found on cooler, drier, larger ice-age Bahamian islands.

Although the 17 species of birds didn’t survive the ice age, 22 species of reptiles, birds and mammals did.

But they didn’t survive human beings. When people appeared on the island about 1,000 years ago and used fire to clear land for farming, those 22 species disappeared. Island species are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss because of the limited land area.

The human caused climate change was not adapted by all the bird species due to fossil burning and green house emissions. Thus this lead to the extinction of the species on Abaco.

Ans 3: Impacts

1) Increase in average temperatures and temperature extremes.

2) Extreme weather events

3) Ice melt

4)Sea levels and ocean acidification

5)Many species of plants and animals are already moving their range northward or to higher altitudes as a result of warming

Ans 4:

Add solar panels to your house

Change lightbulbs to LEDs

Clean or replace HVAC filters every three months.

Wash clothes in cold water

Upcycle your furniture

Buy new appliances with the Energy Star label