Global warming is the gradual increase in earth’s surface temperature. The increased temperature leads to an increased melting of snow and ice. The resultant of the melting is an increased global sea level. It is estimated that between 1906 and 2005, earth’s surface temperatures raised by 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (Ernesto 8-23). In 1998, Kyoto protocol was developed as a preventive measure to further global warming. This paper discusses the effects of global warming on human health, human welfare and human settlements.
Effects on human health
There are some diseases that have been triggered and caused by the increased temperatures on earth, they include skin cancer, skin diseases and pulmonary diseases; some of these diseases are caused by direct integration while others are as a result of indirect effects of global warming. When some areas are heated, a wave of hot air that moves from one the region of high temperatures to the areas of low temperatures; these heats may carry with them some diseases like tuberculosis that affect the people.
At the high temperatures, some viruses and bacteria are able to multiply resulting to increased health complications on the people; such viruses include Hantavirus. Melting of icecaps, reduce the freshness of water, when the saline intrusion of water is increased, then people are likely to suffer some related diseases (Colleen 5-8).
Effects on human settlement
Global warming has resulted to extreme weather conditions, some situations that cannot allow productive agriculture or hinders a comfortable life of the settlers. When lands and climate fail to support productive agriculture, then people living in the areas are more likely to move to other places; this leads to land that have been left to be consumed by effects of weather while others, which are believed to be productive are over populated.
Populations that live in risk prone areas are more likely to suffer loss of land to the increasing sea level and risks of dangerous waves; when the temperatures increase; they lead to melting of the ice caps that lead to an increased water levels on seas and oceans. When the water levels increase, they reclaim coastal lands leading to resettlement of the coastal people (Colleen 12).
Effects on human welfare
When temperatures increase, they affect the quality of life in the world; people are not enjoying their life to their fullest. Increased temperatures have an effect on human psychology and socially he can have limited enjoyment of life. The massive campaigns on the probable effects of global warming are not working well with human welfare.
The diseases that can be directly or indirectly be attributed to global warming have a negative effect on human welfare. Global warming is likely to have negative effects on people’s economies, geography, urban planning, and sociology, when the above attributes of life have been affected, then the human welfare is affected negatively.
When icecaps melt and water levels increase; recreational features and places are reduced, at coastal places, there are higher risks of high tides and waves that are dangerous to human beings thus reducing relational activities along the coast (Colleen 23).
Conclusion
Global warming is the increase in earth surface temperature, which results in increased global sea level. The major cause of global warming is human activities especially in this era of industrialization; it has a negative effect on human health, settlement and welfare.
Works Cited
Colleen, Reid. Analyses of the Effects of Global Change on Human Health and Welfare and Human Systems. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Sep. 2008. Web. Print.
Ernesto , Zedillo. Global warming: looking beyond Kyoto. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.Print.