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Global Warming Benefits -- You may well like it!
WARMER WINTERS ARE HEALTHIER: From a purely evolutionary point of view, warm periods have always benefited plants and animals. The world has thrived during the warming periods between the ice ages. Cold periods have always caused serious survival problems for all organisms including mankind. Scientific studies show that there will be 40,000 fewer deaths each year in the U.S. In Britain alone, scientists estimate that about 30,000 deaths a year are related to cold winter weather. Warmer temperatures in the U.S. will reduce medical costs by about $20 billion every year.
WARMER WINTERS ARE SAFER: With most streets free from ice and snow, driving will be a lot safer; No need to shovel snow reducing the stress induced heart attacks; Heating bills will be drastically lower; No need to waste money on all of that cold weather gear. Rail, road and air transportation would be positively impacted by a general warming since weather-related delays and accidents would be greatly reduced. Department of Energy studies show that consumer energy bills would be reduced by over $12 billion each year.
Global warming will have no real effect, positive or negative, on economic activities such as manufacturing, retailing, wholesaling, banking, education and the majority of other businesses that are unrelated to cold weather. Of course cold weather activities, such as snow-sports, would be negatively affected.
WARMER WEATHER WILL OPEN THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE: As rising temperatures melt glaciers in the Arctic and particularly in Alaska, a new, faster trade route will soon open up. The Bering Strait, a legendarily difficult passage for ships, could become an oceanic super-highway between the hemispheres as ice sheets disappear. The seldom-used strait is set to become the Panama Canal of the north, cutting down travel time between Europe, America and Asia by as much as one-third. Experts predict the Northwest Passage will be open for year-round travel within a decade. This would be of particular importance for supertankers which are too big to fit through the Panama Canal and currently are forced to go around the tip of South America. This reduction of sea lane ice in the Arctic will be a dramatic boon to the shipping industry carrying cargo between the continents.
WARMER WEATHER MEANS MORE USABLE LAND: As the ice retreats to the poles, more arable land will become available for both residential and agricultural purposes. Large land-masses in the northern hemisphere, just south of the Canadian/U.S. border, have some very extreme climates that can be quite inhospitable for human habitation. Most Canadians live in a belt running along its southern border with the United States. But once global warming is factored in, vast northern regions will become arable and comfortably habitable. All of Canada will welcome an agricultural boon field with long growing seasons. Heretofore uninhabitable land will not only become inhabitable, but even temperate.
The process of converting northern US and Canadian forests and grasses to cropland will have a positive cooling effect, because agricultural crops reflect more sunlight and release more moisture into the air. This expanded agriculture will counteract global warming by as much as fifty-percent across parts of North America, Canada, Europe, and Asia. The old boreal forests of both Canada and Russia add to global warming since these pine and waxy leafed trees are darker, thereby absorbing more heat, and, because of their leaf structure, do not evaporate cooling water into the surrounding air. The replacement of boreal forests with more tropical trees will dramatically aid in balancing and diminishing the negative affects of global warming.
WARMER WEATHER MEANS MORE CROPS: Satellite measurements now show that our planet has become greener than it was prior to the onset of global warming. The rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere dramatically increases overall global food production. The presence of carbon dioxide has a fertilizing effect on the growth of plant life. The warmer weather means a longer growing season, and thus greater output. This, combined with fewer frosts and more precipitation, among other factors, will greatly benefit all of the agricultural economic sectors, plus the positive impacts on forestry and recreation. In addition to the dramatic increase of actual land available for cultivation, natural resources would be much easier to extract. The overall economic impact of global warming on the U.S. economy will actually be positive, creating a measurable increase in Gross Domestic Product.
There are some valid points on this site, however, other relative information has not been represented.
There are many cold related deaths and illnesses but there are just as many heat related deaths and illnesses. There is a predicted 5.74% increase in the number of deaths related to warmer weather, and interestingly, an 1.59% increase in cold related deaths.
Warmer climates will also mean the migration of mosquitos and infectious diseases carried by the mosquitos. Flesh eating diseases, such as Leishmaniasis, can increases due to warmer temperatures. Stress-induced heart attacks may decrease, but heat-related heart attacks will increase, as higher temperatures put a strain on the cardio-vascular system.
Heating bills may decrease, but cooling bills will increase in the warmer summers. Global warming may not have a direct effect on some industries, but there will be indirect effects. Damaged infrastructure, caused by extreme changes in weather, will need to be replaced more frequently than if caused by normal wear and tear (In Alaska alone, there will be an extra US$3.6-$6.1 billion spent from 2006-2030 on damaged infrastructure). Changes in precipitation patterns will mean some areas will need to pump in water from wetter areas, such as in New Mexico, which is expected to cost US$21-300 million by 2080. Also, people around the globe will need to be relocated after their homes are claimed by rising sea levels or unliveable conditions (such as the encroachment of deserts in Africa).
There will be milder temperatures in north of North America leading to higher wheat production. There will also be rising sea levels claiming agricultural lands, increases in wildfire activity, increased conflicts over resources (such as irrigation water), an increased range and severity of crop diseases, encroachment of shrubs onto grasslands (making them unsuitable for domestic livestock grazing), decreased flows in the Colorado River Basin and Murray-Darling River Basin, decreases in Africa's and China's food production.
The world was warmer 800 years ago. However we are now surpassing Holocene temperature levels (the previous interglacial period). Warmer air may carry more moisture but it will distribute rain less evenly and in areas very different to where rain currently falls.
I am pleased to see a site with an alternative viewpoint to global warming. But I would more pleased to see a more even representation of the positives and negatives of climate change, so that everyone can be informed.
The Earth's climate is a delicate system. Like a set of scales, if humans tip one side too greatly it can cause unprecedented changes. I have no doubt people would find a positive to living in an ice-age if humans were causing one.
Posted By Catherine, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 7/26/08 9:14 PM
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Climate change is natural. 800 years ago it was a little warmer than today, Greenland and Newfoundland were farmed by the Vikings. then the little ice age hit destroying the Vikings, disease went rampant, crops failed, humanity took a hit, arguably life as a whole took a hit. about 300 years ago we started to really recover. 30 years ago we were terrified another ice age was coming (something worth fearing) now we are afraid of a phenomenon named after a structure man makes to help plants, the foundation of the food chain, grow. what is more, global warming will thicken the ozone layer by generating more, and depleting it less. Lightning strikes are more frequent in warmer weather, lightning generates ozone. The chemical clouds which deplete the ozone at the poles can not form above -80 degrees Fahrenheit, warmer planet means warmer poles and since our poles are not sealed off from the rest of our atmosphere more ozone there means more ozone everywhere.
Plants usually grow better with more heat. They always grow better with more CO2. Warmer air holds more moisture bringing more rain.
The antarctic glaciers will not melt, icebergs are calved as the ice flows too far from support... (glaciers flow) higher global humidity could cause higher antarctic rainfall (antarctica is a desert) thickening the glaciers ever hear the phrase “too cold to snow” that is antarctica most of the time.
Save the world, warm it up.
Humanity will be begging for global warming when Yellowstone creates decades of real climate change instantly (10s of degrees cooler within the month, not fractions of a degree over decades.)
Posted By Thomas, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 6/26/08 11:43 PM
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this is great...finally facts, ive been searching for a site like this...that says all the truth and not just the stuff that suits it and benefits it!
Posted By Yara Shalata, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 5/5/08 9:13 AM
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Since this has been the coldest winter in recorded history, is there any way we can accelerate global warming ??? -- sounds like a good thing!
Posted By J Pipk, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 2/23/08 2:37 PM
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I believe we have to also invest in the future scheme of things. Learning to sustain ourselves will be the new economy. Those who adjust now will survive just fine. Move north, cut back, scale down, save, and wait. If things get out of hand in the south, you will be well planted, rooted in security when the poor bastards in the south start the inevitable GREAT NORTHERN EXODUS.
Posted By Thomas Green, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 11/5/07 4:22 PM
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I think Russia, Canada, Kazakhstan are key, because they together compose of 11 million sq miles of land. Currently, this land isn't being used for agriculture at all. Although some deserts may expand, more heat means more humidity, and rain is intensifying in the most needed areas, i.e. India and China. Tropical diseases ignored by the West will need to be dealt with, but thats a good thing, as we've ignored the needs of people in the tropics too long. The main danger however, of global warming is the danger of a methane overturn of the oceans, which would be catastrophic. But the chance of that is very slim...
Posted By Jack, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 10/31/07 12:08 PM
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Yes this is another change we will have to adjust to but that doesn't mean we don't have to take some action to prevent it. I mean this is the time where we realize that our human activities are really impacting our environment. We have to take some responsibility.
Posted By Jenny, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 5/24/07 7:06 PM
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I live in Canada, where we have about 3 months of summer (if we're lucky) per year. Our earth has gone through many changes over the centuries and we still survived. Maybe this is just another change we will have to adjust to.
Posted By John McKay, www.MisunderstoodUniverse.com | 5/15/07 1:23 PM
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