Impacts Of Climate Change On Human Systems PDF

Impacts of Climate Change Human Systems By the end of the topic, I should know and understand: 1. Impact of climate change on human systems (a) geographically uneven due to varying climate variables and localised economic and social factors (b) impacts are interconnected and cascaded from...

Impacts of Climate Change Human Systems By the end of the topic, I should know and understand: 1. Impact of climate change on human systems (a) geographically uneven due to varying climate variables and localised economic and social factors (b) impacts are interconnected and cascaded from natural systems to people 2. Direct impact of climate change on human systems (a) occurs through extreme weather events (b) including heat waves, droughts, floods, cyclones and wildfires 3. Indirect impact of climate change on human systems (a) affects provisioning ecosystem services including food production, and regulating ecosystem services including disease regulation (b) alters cultural ecosystem services including melting of arctic ice and degradation of natural landscapes  Impact of Climate Change on Human Systems Direct Indirect could lead to Impacts Impacts Heat Waves Cultural Tropical Ecosystem Cyclones Services Droughts Provisioning Regulating Ecosystem Ecosystem Floods Services Services Wildfires Increase in Degradation vector- of Natural Impacts on borne Melting of Landscapes Fish diseases Arctic Ice Production Impacts on Crop Yields  01 Direct vs Indirect Impacts  Types of Impacts Direct Impacts Indirect Impacts (Primary Impacts) (Secondary Impacts) Impacts that are the direct Impacts that are the result result, and often occuring of primary impacts, and can immediately, of the natural occur hours, days or weeks, hazard after the original hazard  Types of impacts Direct impacts Indirect impacts Affects provisioning ecosystem services: Extreme weather events ○ Affects economic livelihoods cause loss of human lives, ○ E.g. resources for food production increased poverty and destruction of property. Affects regulating ecosystem services: ○ Affects environment’s ability to regulate Heat waves, droughts, ○ E.g. disease regulation floods, cyclones wildfires Affects cultural ecosystem services: ○ Affects ability to improve wellbeing through recreational activities and economic returns from tourism How does climate change lead to more extreme weather events? Evidence shows that climate change increases the severity or the frequency of extreme weather events. A diagram showing the strength of evidence supporting how likely extreme weather events are occurring due to climate change Using the figure, describe the distribution of predicted extreme weather events that Australia may experience in future due to Climate Change. What are some recent examples of extreme weather events?  Extreme Weather Events Heat Waves Droughts Wildfires Extended periods of Extended periods when Unplanned and excessively hot weather areas experience lack of uncontrolled fires in precipitation natural areas Floods Tropical Cyclone Excessive precipitation Intense circular storms or snowmelt during with by heavy rains, strong warmer months winds and storm surges  What are the direct and indirect impacts of such extreme weather events?  Group Activity 1) Go to your class’ padlet 2) In groups of 3-4, select one of the following extreme weather events 3) Read the resources provided and, Describe direct impacts Describe indirect impacts Group Padlet link 3E Pure https://stmargaretssecondary1.padlet.org/lim_xin_priscilla/sec-3exp-pure_2024_climate- Geog cluster-topic-2-kq4-impact-of-cli-got7hof06v86mw8f Exp Elect https://stmargaretssecondary1.padlet.org/lim_xin_priscilla/sec-4express- Geog elective_2024_climate-cluster-topic-2-kq4-impac-lv9v3pnr58eqvlr7 NA Elect https://stmargaretssecondary1.padlet.org/lim_xin_priscilla/sec-4n-elective_2024_climate- Geog cluster-topic-2-kq4-impact-of-c-m9brg4ps5paox14i 02 Impacts of Heat Waves  Heat Waves A period of excessively hot weather that is abnormal for the location and usually lasting for several days or longer Climate change leads to higher temperatures, making heat waves more frequent and intense.  03 Impacts of Droughts Droughts A drought is when an area or region experiences a lack of precipitation for an extended period of time, resulting in water storage. Higher temperatures due to climate change increase evaporation, which reduces surface water and dries our soil and vegetation. Places experiencing drier climates will experience more frequent and severe droughts. More likely to occur in already dry climates such as the sub tropics and the mid-latitudes.  Types of Droughts Meteorological Hydrological Agricultural Ecological Socio-economic Droughts Droughts Droughts Droughts Droughts Droughts that cause Droughts that cause Low supply of water in Droughts that Extended periods of damage to ecology further impacts on sources of storage in damages agricultural dry weather patterns due to lack of soil other commodities hydrological cycle crops moisture that rely on water supply  04 Impacts of Wildfires Wildfires Wildfires Unplanned and uncontrolled fires that burn in natural areas such as forests or grasslands. Drier weather patterns results in more dead trees and vegetation → easier for wildfires to start and harder to put out.  Direct impacts: Loss of human lives through suffocation, burns, and injuries. Wildfires can result in large amounts of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter entering the Wildfires atmosphere. This causes air pollution, which can cause respiratory illnesses and deaths in humans. Wildfires can also destroy buildings and properties, resulting in homelessness and economic losses.  05 Impacts of Floods  Causes of Floods Higher Higher Higher Snowmelt More Frequent and Severe Rainfall Sea Level Rise Temperature Temperature Temperature → Greater → Snow, → Snow, evaporation glaciers and glaciers and → More rain ice caps melt ice caps in warmer melt→ Sea and wetter level rise → climates coastal floods  Floods Direct Impacts: Loss of human Destruction of buildings People become Food and water lives due to and properties, leading to homeless as supplies are affected, drowning and economic losses. their houses are and waterborne injuries. destroyed. diseases such as cholera become increasingly prevalent.  06 Impacts of Tropical Cyclones What are characteristics and impacts of tropical cyclones? Tropical Tropical cyclones are intense Cyclones circular storms that originate over warm tropical oceans. They are also called typhoons or hurricanes in different parts of the world. With climate change, oceans are warmer and there is more water vapour in the atmosphere, which is believed that this is a driving force for more intense tropical cyclones to form. Satellite image of super typhoon Haiyan approaching Vietnam in 2013 Tropical cyclones Cyclones are accompanied by strong winds that can exceed over 320km per hour, heavy rainfall of over 100mm per day and storm surges where the sea level can rise to a height of 6 meters. Strong winds, heavy rain, and storm surges brought by the tropical cyclones can result in loss of lives due to flooding, landslides, and collapsing buildings and infrastructure. Strong winds can also destroy buildings and crops, leading to economic losses, and threatening food secrurity. Primary and Secondary Impacts of Tropical Cyclones  You have now learnt about the DIRECT impacts of climate change. Read P.59 to 62 of the TB and the SLS digital TB on the impacts of climate change that affect humans indirectly. How does climate change affect: Provisioning ecosystem services Regulating ecosystem services Cultural ecosystem services ……. how do these ultimately affect humans? What does this tell you about impacts of climate change in the world?  Indirect impacts on human systems Climate change impacts are interconnected and there are indirect impacts on human systems through changes in the earth’s ecosystem services in the following ways: Provisioning ecosystem services including food production are affected. Regulating ecosystem services including disease regulation are affected. Cultural ecosystem services, including melting of Arctic ice and degradation of natural landscapes, are destroyed, which affects economic returns.  07 Impacts on Provisioning Ecosystem services Impact on Provisioning Ecosystem services Climate change results in physical changes to the environment that affects provisioning ecosystem services. This indirectly impacts humans as the environment’s ability to provide resources for food production is affected. This impacts economic livelihoods and food security. Tonle Sap, Cambodia With increasing temperatures and unpredictable rainfall, the water level in Tonle Sap has declined significantly, reducing fish habitats for fish and the availability of fishes. This threatens the economic livelihoods and food security of Cambodians. Tonle Sap Lake Higher temperatures results in erratic rainfall events, reducing the water level in Tonle Sap. This leads to falling fish supplies. Higher temperatures lead to burning of nearby forests during dry season. This results in loss of timber and fish nurseries. Tonle Sap, Cambodia  Fish production (i) Warmer and more acidic oceans Climate change causes ocean temperatures to increase and increase in acidity. Such changes to the aquatic environment can threaten the availability of aquatic life or affect the distribution of aquatic species as they look for cooler waters. This affects what fishermen can catch, and where they have to go to fish. Aquatic species may also die if they cannot cope with the sudden changes in the aquatic environment  Fish production (ii) Rising sea levels Rising sea levels due to climate change can lead to salt water from the sea entering freshwater in rivers, which may threaten freshwater fisheries. This therefore indirectly impacts people who depend on the fisheries for their economic livelihoods. It also affects the food security of a place as fish supplies dwindle. Fish production: Positive impact Places located at For example, in higher latitudes recent years, may benefit by fishermen in Fisheries there will seeing an increase Portugal have be able to catch a in fish species begun to catch new more diverse range migrating species, which were of seafood. polewards due to previously found in the cooler waters warmer regions. there. Fish Migration to the Poles  Crop yields Extreme weather events will make it difficult for crop yields to survive and food production will be severely affected. Example: In 2020, Thailand experienced its worst drought in four decades and many farmers were unable to grow crops. Thailand’s agricultural sector uses 70% of the nation’s water supply, hence this has severe impact on the farmers and the agricultural sector in Thailand. Crop yields  08 Impacts on Regulating Ecosystem services Spread of Vector-Borne Diseases Spread of vector-borne diseases Vector-borne diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever or Zika, have resulted in more than 700 000 deaths annually. With warmer temperatures, there are more conducive environments for vectors such as mosquitos and ticks to survive and breed. Temperature Precipitation Relative Humidity 22°C to 30°C means May create 50% to 60% relative increased lifespan of and breeding grounds humidity means better bites by female mosquito for mosquitoes mosquito survival and Higher temperatures May also wash activity mean shorter developing away mosquito Higher humidity means time for mosquito habitats longer lifespan for parasites mosquitoes → infect Higher temperatures mean more people reduced aquatic life cycle for mosquitoes so they can breed faster  Spread of vector-borne diseases As the temperature increases, mosquitoes will be able to move to higher latitudes which are now warmer. This will result in more areas of the world being at risk of vector- borne diseases. With diseases spreading easily, it can cause people to fall sick more often and even die. Further, if people are sick, their work productivity decreases and a country’s healthcare costs will Studies predict that half of the world’s population will be increase too, leading to reduced exposed to mosquito-borne diseases by 2050 economic growth.  Spread of vector- borne diseases: Bhutan Prior to 2018, mosquitoes were non-existent in the mountainous regions of Bhutan as they are usually too cold for mosquitoes to breed. In 2019, Bhutan suffered the country’s first national dengue epidemic where 19 out of the 20 districts of the country reported cases of the dengue virus  09 Impacts on Cultural Ecosystem services  Melting of Arctic ice Positive Arctic region is now more accessible to ships. This has led to an increase in tourism opportunities for tourists who may be drawn to the Arctic landscape. → Arctic tourism industry will benefit by seeing an increase in economic returns. Increase in trade for other areas which are able to open up other economic opportunities. E.g.: More ships travelling by Russian-controlled Northern Sea route instead of Northwest Passage. Negative Everyday cultural practices of the Arctic indigenous people are affected: Traditional practices such as the storing of food in ice cellars are threatened due to the melting ice. Rapid decline in the number of sled dogs typically used for travel and hunting. Melting of Arctic Ice: Sami People Degradation of natural landscapes Sea level rise threatens low-lying islands such as Maldives, which relies heavily on tourism as an economic driver. Many parts of Maldives will become uninhabitable to residents and tourists. Corals, which are a huge tourist attraction in Maldives, are affected by coral bleaching brought about by warmer oceans. These can lead to a reduction in tourist revenue as fewer tourists visit the Maldives.  What does this tell you about impacts of climate change in the world? Impacts are experienced unevenly across the world Flooding in Bangladesh VS flooding in Singapore  Uneven Impacts Impacts are unevenly experienced due to: Varying climatic variables of the Socio-economic factors: place: - DC VS LDC (level of development) Places with different precipitation and (i) Recovery process temperature respond differently to climate change - Extent of damage - Population density Impacts are interconnected