• Question: what do think will happen if the earth gets to hot thanks to global warming

    Asked by benjohnston to Adam, Catherine, Karen, Leila, Nazim on 14 Mar 2012. This question was also asked by tommills.
    • Photo: Adam Stevens

      Adam Stevens answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      One problem could be that global warming is most likely a positive feedback effect. This means that as it gets warmer it changes things in such a way that it makes it get warmer even faster! So the process feeds itself and gets worse and worse, faster and faster.

      We think this is what happened on Venus. Nowadays Venus is really hot, several hundreds of degrees and has a constantly cloudy, acidic atmosphere.

      That’s what might happen to the Earth in an extreme case…

    • Photo: Leila Battison

      Leila Battison answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      The effects of warming over all of the planet are really difficult to predict. It’s likely that the ice sheets will melt, causing sea level to rise. This means more dark coloured sea and less light coloured ice. Dark colours adsorb heat, so the Earth will get hotter and hotter, like Adam said.

      But this might mean that it will get rainier, because of more evaporation from the sea. More rain means more erosion from mountains into the sea. The minerals from the eroded mountains will get used by algae in the ocean, that also use up CO2. Without as much CO2 in the atmosphere, there will be less greenhouse effect, and the earth will cool down.

      So maybe we’ll be alright after all?!

    • Photo: Catherine Rix

      Catherine Rix answered on 12 Mar 2012:

      Climate change is very complicated and lots of scientists are spending a lot of time trying to predict what might happen. One big concern in that the global ice caps might melt and sea levels will rise which could cause flooding. There might also be drought which could make growing enough food more difficult. There is some evidence that global warming could result in colder winters in some parts of the world too.

    • Photo: Nazim Bharmal

      Nazim Bharmal answered on 14 Mar 2012:

      If the Earth gets warmer, then unfortunately the people who will suffer most will the poorest. So I predict more wars as people fight over land, food, and water. A lot of animals and plants will die and even become extinct. I think people in Europe will survive fairly well, but the world will not be such a nice place to live.

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