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Global climate change hits home
posted at 12:25 PM  
The Augusta Chronicle has a piece about how global climate change is predicted to affect Augusta and the rest of Georgia. Here's the basic rundown provided at the end of the article:
Georgia predictions
- By 2100, temperatures will increase by 2 degrees in summer, 4-7 degrees in winter and 2 to 9 degrees in autumn.
- Average rainfall will jump between 15 and 40 percent in summer and fall, and about 10 percent in winter and spring.
- Spring will arrive earlier, and summers will last longer, with corresponding adjustments in plant and animal life.
- Severe weather events will increase in frequency and scale.
- Sea levels could rise as much as 25 inches at Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, by 2100.
- Rising oceans will threaten marshes and could intrude on fresh- water supplies.
- Costs of protecting Georgia against a 20-inch rise in sea level are $154 million to $1.3 billion.
- More precipitation will alter agricultural practices, with hay and pasture yields increasing 25 percent, while grain crop acreage could decrease as much as 22 percent.
- By 2050, heat-related deaths in Atlanta, now averaging 25 per year, could increase to 60.
- Mosquitoes that carry malaria and equine encephalitis will expand their habitat.
Sources: U.S. Climate & Policy Assessment Office; Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Sometimes I wonder...if we hadn't invented heaters and air conditioners, would we already be extinct? What else are we going to need to invent to survive?
Comments
I guess you'd just move somewhere more temperate, or construct buildings differently.
Sadly due to the laws of thermodynamics cooling anything down actually creates more heat. I guess adding that reflective glass to keep the sun out, and letting air flow through a building is the way to go.
Hmm, that's a good point.
If we hadn't invented heaters and air conditioners, would we need heaters and air conditioners?
;>
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