Abstract

Rising fossil fuel burning and land use changes have emitted and are continuing to emit increasing quantities of greenhouse gases into the Earth s atmosphere These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide CO2 methane CH4 and nitrogen dioxide N2O and a rise in these gases has caused a rise in the amount of heat from the sun withheld in the Earth s atmosphere heat that would normally be radiated back into space This increase in heat has led to the greenhouse effect resulting in climate change Climate change will have wide-ranging effects on the environment and on socio-economic and related sectors including water resources agriculture and food security human health terrestrial ecosystems and biodiversity and coastal zones Changes in rainfall pattern are likely to lead to severe water shortages and or flooding Melting of glaciers can cause flooding and soil erosion Rising temperatures will cause shifts in crop growing seasons which affects food security and changes in the distribution of disease vectors putting more people at risk from diseases such as malaria and dengue fever Temperature increases will potentially severely increase rates of extinction for many habitats and species up to 30 per cent with a 2 C rise in temperature