National Wildlife Federation - The Effects of Massive Climate Change

This video outlines the seriousness of the situation. They show many great technologies that can reduce greenhouse gases. The truth is most people are too brain dead to even care. What can you do? Reduce, reuse, recycle and stop buying cheap junk from unsustainable China. The carbon footprint is UNBELIEVABLE for anything from China, and they just dump all toxins into the environment with no pollution controls.
   


National Wildlife Federation: Global Warming is Affecting Weather

Global warming is making hot days hotter, rainfall and flooding heavier, hurricanes stronger and droughts more severe.

This intensification of weather and climate extremes will be the most
visible impact of global warming in our everyday lives. People who have
the least ability to cope with these changes--the poor, very old, very
young, or sick--are the most vulnerable.

Extreme Weather's Impact on U.S. Energy Infrastructure

More weather and climate extremes are likely to impact U.S. energy
security in ways that have not been adequately considered. For example,
major weather-related power outages are already becoming more common,
oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf region is at risk as hurricanes
and tropical storms intensify, coal transport by rail and barge across
the Midwest and Northeast will face more flooding disruptions, and
electricity generation in the Southwest will be limited by water
shortages and more extreme heat.

Heat Waves

Global warming will bring more extreme heat waves. As the United
States warms another 4 to 11°F on average over the next century, we will
have more extremely hot summer days. Every part of the country will be
affected. Urban areas will feel the heat more acutely because asphalt,
concrete and other structures absorb and reradiate heat, causing
temperature to be as much as 10°F higher than nearby rural areas.

Extreme Allergies

Unchecked global warming will worsen respiratory allergies for
approximately 25 million Americans. Springtime allergies to tree pollens
are projected to get worse. In the fall, ragweed is projected to thrive
and become more irritating under increased carbon dioxide levels. These
potential impacts of global warming could have a significant economic
impact: allergies and asthma already cost the United States more than
$32 billion annually in direct health care costs and lost productivity.

Winter Weather

Global warming is having a seemingly peculiar effect on winter
weather in the northern United States. Winter is becoming milder and
shorter on average; spring arrives 10 to 14 days earlier than it did
just 20 years ago. But most snowbelt areas are still experiencing
extremely heavy snowstorms. Some places are even expected to
have more heavy snowfall events as storm tracks shift northward and as
reduced ice cover on the Great Lakes increases lake-effect snowfalls.

Drought

Global warming is shifting precipitation patterns and also increasing
evaporation rates. These trends will create persistently drier
conditions in some places, including the American Southwest. At the same
time, they will intensify the periodic droughts that affect other
regions of the country. These longer and drier droughts will have major
consequences for water supply, agriculture and wildlife. Although the
American Southeast is typically thought of as having abundant water
supplies, recent droughts have served as a wake up call for the region.

Wildfires

Catastrophic wildfires just waiting to happen. This is the situation
now facing the American West. Wildfire frequency, severity and damages
are increasing because of rising temperatures, drying conditions and
more lightning brought by global warming, combined with decades of fire
suppression that allowed unsafe fuel loads to accumulate, a severe bark
beetle infestation that is rapidly decimating trees and ever expanding
human settlements in and near forests.

Floods

Global warming has caused more heavy rainfall events in the United
States over the last few decades along with an increased likelihood of
devastating floods. While no single storm or flood can be attributed
directly to global warming, changing climate conditions are at least
partly responsible for past trends. Because warmer air can hold more
moisture, more and heavier precipitation is expected in the years to
come. At the same time, shifts in snowfall patterns, the onset of spring
and river-ice melting may all exacerbate flooding risks.

Hurricanes

Stronger hurricanes, heavier rainfall and rising sea level: this is
what global warming has in store for the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic coasts.
The latest science indicates that maximum hurricane wind speed will
increase 2 to 13 percent and rainfall rates will increase 10 to 31
percent over this century. At the same time, sea-level rise will cause
bigger storm surges and further erode the natural defenses provided by
coastal wetlands that buffer storm impacts.

Extreme Weather and Climate Justice

More and more Americans will be living in places highly vulnerable to
weather and climate extremes as population continues to grow rapidly in
cities, along the coasts and in the South. Racial and ethnic minorities
will be disproportionately impacted because their populations are
concentrated in these places. For example, 56 percent of African
Americans live in the Southern United States or in urban areas.
Furthermore, global warming will add further stress to existing problems
in urban areas, in particular poverty, inequities in access to health
care, aging infrastructure and air pollution.