NASA | Ask a Climate Scientist: Climate Change and Humans

How does climate change affect humans? That's the question we asked Tom Wagner, Program Scientist for Cryospheric Research at NASA.

In four different ways, he says, from rainfall patterns and sea levels rising to food production and ocean acidification. First, "as the planet warms up, we're going to redistribute rainfall, which is going to affect our water resources and parts of North America may get a lot drier."
Second, "as the polar ice melts, sea levels are going to rise." The world's major cities, and a lot of people, are right on the coasts and rising sea levels are going to impact them.

Third, thinking about food, the "distributions where we can grow food are going to change as the planet warms up." So the range over which you can grow corn and other crops will change.

Fourth, says Tom Wagner, "the oceans are going to get more acidic as more CO2 dissolves in them." There are untold ramifications from that, including the possibility of radically altering the food web in the ocean, "which can affect everything from the composition of the atmosphere to the ability of the oceans to provide food for us."

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[IstasPumaNevada]

Before anyone says it, yes, I'm sure they realize that melting arctic sea ice won't raise sea levels (directly, anyway). It's just that that's a more visually apparent example of change than the changes in Greenland or Antarctica's ice volumes.

Also, these are pretty important reasons to do something.

[jont]

Wait a minute doesn't the water cycle purify rainfall

[seecanon]

Will melting glaciers 'freshen' the levels of salt in our oceans? And with this, will that 'freshened' water kill off certain sea life? I know there are freshwater sharks but I'm not sure of any other creatures like dolphins who swim in anything other than salt water. If this is true, will we be able to desalinate the ocean and use that water for human consumption and crops? Just wondering.

[jont]

Prve that you can grow more tropical food in the uk

[aigarsa]

how can a NASA employee say that ice melting can will cause raising of sea level?

Among the greatest fears scientists have about global warming is that it will cause the massive ice fields of Greenland and other locales at the northern end of the Gulf Stream to melt rapidly, sending surges of cold water into the ocean system and interrupting the flow of the Ocean Conveyor Belt. One doomsday scenario is that such an event would stop or disrupt the whole Ocean Conveyor Belt system, plunging Western Europe into a new ice age without the benefit of the warmth delivered by the Gulf Stream.