Environmental policies and climate change

Assignment Details

Reflect back on the lessons from this session. In Unit 1, you looked at ecosystems and considered what would happen if even one key component were impacted by a disturbance. In Unit 2, you compared living conditions, the spread of disease, and the availability of food in developing and developed countries. In Unit 3, you looked at the contribution of burning fossil fuels to greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. Then in Unit 4, you considered the issues surrounding air pollution, among others. All of these topics relate to the disturbances and predicted impacts of global climate change.

For this discussion, you will consider the effect of a changing climate on one of the topics listed below. Use this article as your starting point: Effects of Global Warming.

Recommended: Click on the following links to review materials to enhance your knowledge of ecosystems, disturbance, and recovery:

Choose ONE aspect of the environment that is impacted by climate change (from the 3 listed below: A, B, or C), and answer the 2 questions associated with the topic you chose: 

• Species extinction and habitat loss 
  1. Explain how climate change impacts vulnerable species or results in the spread of invasive species. 
  2. Explain how these changes will affect food webs.
• Human health, agriculture, and infrastructure 
  1. Explain how changing weather patterns affect food production, the spread of disease or damage to homes, transportation, or the electric grid. 
  2. Discuss increases in pollution as a result of global warming.
• Water, melting ice caps, and rising sea levels
  1. Explain how global warming is affecting ice caps and the impact to further warming. 
  2. Discuss the rise of sea level and saltwater intrusion and how eroding coastlines affect human activities and ecosystems.