The Dangers of Climate Change

Climate change has become an increasing issue for the world. This project combines HTML coding with multiple augmented realities to show some of the major issues ocurring now.

A 2021 study supported by NOAA concluded that climate change has been the main driver of the increase in fire weather in the western United States. For much of the U.S. West, projections show that an average annual 1 degree C temperature increase would increase the median burned area per year by as much as 600 percent in some types of forests. In the Southeastern United States modeling suggests increased fire risk and a longer fire season, with at least a 30 percent increase from 2011 in the area burned by lightning-ignited wildfire by 2060.

Climate change increases the odds of worsening drought in many parts of the United States and the world. Regions such as the U.S. Southwest, where droughts are expected to get more frequent, intense, and longer lasting, are at particular risk. Water supply, Agriculture, Transportation, Energy, Public Health, all are affected by drought. All of these drought impacts can inflict extreme costs on people, businesses, and governments. From 2011 through 2020, the United States experienced nine droughts, each causing at least $1 billion in damages.

Since the early 1900s, many glaciers around the world have been rapidly melting. Human activities are at the root of this phenomenon. Specifically, since the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have raised temperatures, even higher in the poles, and as a result, glaciers are rapidly melting, calving off into the sea and retreating on land. Even if we significantly curb emissions in the coming decades, more than a third of the remaining glaciers will melt before the year 2100. When it comes to sea ice, 95 percent of the oldest and thickest ice in the Arctic is already gone.

The poorest third of counties in the United States are projected to experience damages costing between 2 and 20 percent of county income under a high emissions scenario much greater than the losses in the richest third, and substantially widening the income gap between rich and poor parts of the country. Though the impacts of climate change will be felt in some places more than others, no part of the country will be insulated.

Research nonprofit Climate Central conducted a unique study of sea-level rise, projecting the amount of real estate, buildings and tax revenue that hundreds of coastal counties will lose as tides encroach on developed areas. It found that an estimated 4.3 million acres which is like an area nearly the size of Connecticut will be underwater by 2050 including $35 billion worth of real estate.