Negatives of Global Warming

Agriculture ·                     Decreasing human water supplies, increased fire frequency, ecosystem change and expanded deserts (Solomon 2009) ·                     Decline in rice yields due to warmer nighttime minimum temperatures (Peng 2004, Tao 2008) ·                     Increase of Western United States wildfire activity, associated with higher temperatures and earlier spring snowmelt (Westerling 2006) ·                     Encroachment of shrubs into grasslands, rendering rangeland unsuitable for domestic livestock grazing (Morgan 2007) ·                     Decreased water supply in the Colorado River Basin (McCabe 2007) ·                     Decreasing water supply to the Murray-Darling Basin (Cai 2008)

Health ·                            Increased deaths to heatwaves - 5.74% increase to heatwaves compared to 1.59% to cold snaps (Medina-Ramon 2007) ·                            Increased heat stress in humans and other mammals (Sherwood 2010) ·                            Spread in mosquite-borne diseases such as Malaria and Dengue Fever (Epstein 1998) ·                            Increase in occurrence of allergic symptoms due to rise in allergenic pollen (Rogers 2006)

Arctic Melt ·                     Loss of 2/3 of the world's polar bear population within 50 years (Amstrup 2007) ·                     Less compacted ice, hazardous floes and more mobile icebergs posing increased risk to shipping (IICWG 2009) ·                     Drying of arctic ponds with subsequent damage to ecosystem (Smol 2007) Warming causes methane to escape from Arctic regions, contributing additional greenhouse warming. The following have been observed: ·                     Melting of Arctic lakes leading methane bubbling (Walter 2007) ·                     Leakage of methane from the East Siberian Shelf seabed sediments (Shakhova 2008) ·                     Escape of methane gas from the seabed along the West Spitsbergen continental margin (Westbrook 2009)

Environment ·                            Rainforests releasing CO2 as regions become drier (Saleska 2009) ·                            Extinction of the European land leech (Kutschera 2007) ·                            Decrease in Adélie penguin numbers  (Ducklow 2006) ·                            Disruption to New Zealand aquatic species such as salmonids, stream invertebrates, fishes (Ryan 2007) ·                            Oxygen poor ocean zones are growing  (Stramma 2008, Shaffer 2009) ·                            Increased mortality rates of healthy trees in Western U.S. forest (Pennisi 2009) ·                            More severe and extensive vegetation die-off due to warmer droughts (Breshears 2009) ·                            Increased pine tree mortality due to outbreaks of pine beetles (Kurz 2008,Bentz 2010) ·                            Increased risk of coral extinction from bleaching and diseased driven by warming waters (Carpenter 2008) ·                            Decline in lizard populations (Sinervo 2010) ·                            Decline in global phytoplankton (Boyce 2010) ·                            Decline in global net primary production - the amount of carbon absorbed by plants (Zhao 2010)

Ocean Acidification ·                     Substantial negative impacts to marine ecosystems (Orr 2005, Fabry 2008,Kroeker 2010) ·                     Inhibiting plankton development, disruption of carbon cycle (Turley 2005) ·                     Increased mortalities of sea urchins (Miles 2007) ·                     Threat to fish populations (Munday 2010)

Glacier Melt ·                            Severe consequences for one-sixth of world's population dependent on ice and snow melt for water supply (Barnett 2005) ·                            Contribution to rising sea levels (Pfeffer 2008, Vermeer 2009)

Economical ·                     Economic damage to poorer, low latitude countries (Mendelsohn 2006) ·                     Billions of dollars of damage to public infrastructure (Larsen 2007) ·                     Reduced water supply in New Mexico (Hurd 2008) ·                     Increased risk of conflict (Zhang 2007) including increased risk of civil war in Africa (Burke 2009) ·                     Drop in primary productivity due to unprecedented warming at Lake Tanganyika (Tierney 2010)

Sea Level Rise ·                            Hundreds of millions displaced within this century (Dasgupta 2009) ·                            Coastal erosion in Nigeria (Okude 2006)