Nicole Hulik December 2018
MBA 674 Term Paper
The Global Impacts of Climate Change
Climate change is a major global challenge and existential threat to humanity in our
world today. It has created a great deal of environmental problems with long-term implications
for the sustainable economic and geopolitical development of all countries. Climate change is
the Earth’s response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases trap
infrared heat from the sun, which has raised the earth’s average temperature 1.2 degrees Celsius
since the late 19th century. The issue of climate change has become more complex and intense in
recent years, as it has added considerable stress to our societies and the environment.
Climate change has already taken observable effects on the environment and global
economies. From shifting weather patterns, droughts, heat waves, rising sea levels, greenhouse
gas concentrations, threats of food production, and risks of catastrophic flooding, we face several
long-term effects on a global scope. These climate changes also impact and endanger our health
nationwide. The air we breathe, our food and water sources, and our interactions in the
environment, every human is vulnerable to the health impacts associated with climate change.
(How Climate is Changing, Nasa Global Climate Change 2018)
The impact and damage of climate change to the environment, including the risks to
human health, is significant and likely to only increase over time. These changes will continue
through the next decades and beyond, so without action today, adapting to these impacts in the
future will be drastically difficult and costly.
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Scientific studies show that if the world’s carbon emissions continue to be neglected,
atmospheric temperatures will continue to rise. The planet will not only continue to get hotter,
but it will also suffer from rising sea levels, more powerful storms, droughts that lead to food
shortages and other extreme conditions. In December 2015, parties of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change met in Paris to discuss how to combat climate
change and accelerate the actions and investments needed for a sustainable low carbon future.
196 representatives from different countries came to an agreement and adopted a universal
legally binding global climate deal called The Paris Agreement. The idea of this agreement was
that every country, rich and poor, would set goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions in an effort
to avert the worst effects of climate change. (Global Issues: Climate Change, United Nations
2018)
The main focus and aim of The Paris Agreement is to strengthen the global response and
create an action plan to put the world on track to avoid the dangers climate change. The
agreement acknowledges that the threat of climate change is urgent and possibly irreversible, and
can only be addressed through the cooperation of all countries and reductions in global
emissions. They address key elements that must be dealt with such as greenhouse gas emissions
mitigation, adaptation, and finance. The greenhouse effect is one of the main causes of global
warming. It is the process where solar radiation is retained and converted into heat that warms
the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet. The long-term goal is to limit the increase in
global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level, and to pursue
efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, since this would substantially reduce the risks
and effects of climate change. Governments agreed to come together every five years to set
more ambitious targets as required by science, and report to each other and the public on how
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well they are doing to implement their targets. They want to strengthen societies’ ability to deal
with the impacts of climate change by providing continued and enhanced international support
for adaptation to developing countries. The agreement also recognizes the importance of
averting and minimizing loss and damage associated with the effects of climate change. They
need to work and improve upon the action and support in different areas such as early warning
systems, emergency preparedness and risk insurance. Cities, regions and local authorities are
encouraged to build resilience and decrease vulnerability to the adverse effects of climate change
as well as uphold regional and international cooperation. (The Paris Agreement, United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2018)
The United States is responsible for 20 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. It would
be difficult for the other countries to reach the agreement’s goal without the U.S., although they
are making efforts. Sixty jurisdictions around the world have carbon taxes, and China, Germany,
Sweden, and Denmark are considering a tax on beef. This is because greenhouse gas emissions
from livestock contribute 14.5 percent of the world’s total. Even if all countries follow the
agreement, temperatures will continue to rise. The atmosphere is still reacting to the carbon
dioxide that’s already been pumped into it. Greenhouse gases have been added so quickly that
temperatures haven’t caught up yet. As a result, measures need to be stricter to reverse global
warming. The Climate Impact Lab predict major cities will see many days above 95 degrees
Fahrenheit. By 2100, Washington DC is expected to experience 29 extremely hot days each
year. That’s four times the average of seven it experienced from 1986 to 2005. (Amadeo, 2018)
Fire seasons are also becoming longer due to global warming. The area affected by
especially long fire seasons has doubled, and the frequency of long fire seasons has increased by
more than half, according to research. More than 69,000 square miles of global tree cover was
lost in 2013 alone, according to the Global Forest Watch partnership. A third of this loss was in
Russia and Canada, mainly because of wildfires. In those countries and in Alaska, there has
been a steep increase in tree cover loss in Arctic and Subarctic forests. Wildfires have burned
over vast areas of the planet this year. We have seen the dramatic images of the fires and their
aftermaths. The smoke has drifted across continents and oceans, most of which have been with
serious consequences. Such wildfire conditions are becoming more extreme and increasingly
reflect rising global temperatures, driven by rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse
gases. These fires result in the release of even more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and
some of the smoke can eventually deposit soot on distant snow and ice, speeding up the melting
that already is occurring in response to global warming. (Sundt, 2018)
In more recent events, wildfires currently burning in northern California have become
rapidly increasing, destroying thousands of acres of land and homes, and resulting in multiple
