Good Essay On Health And The Environment:

The Adverse Effects of Climate Change

Throughout time there has been apparent deterioration of the condition of the environment. Gradually, global temperatures shift towards extremes ends – winters become colder, while summers turn hotter and longer. The adverse short-term effects of climate change are not as intense as its long-term effects. For instance, a few decades back, the effect of climate change is unthinkable. This effect is not only on environmental elements, but it influenced not only the social and cultural aspects of societies, but the economy as well. In this paper, the effects of climate change in human ecology, and on larger scale, how climate change is connected to global stratification, will be discussed.
Climate change has its stages: the warming and the extremes that comes after. Global warming, or the continuous increase of global temperatures, is thought to be primarily caused by the greenhouse gases. But global warning does not exhibit as a gradual warming up; rather it strikes as heat waves affecting a particular region at a time. The increase of global temperature suggests that the atmosphere can hold more moisture which leads to erratic and intense hydrological cycle. Since there’s an increase in the amount of moisture the air can hold, the evaporation happens in a longer span of time causing longer droughts. Furthermore, a large amount of moisture in the air leads to a more drastic and violent rainstorms as well as violent hurricanes. One example is the Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 which hit the U.S. Gulf Coast and New Orleans (DeWeerdt, 2007).
Drought and violent storms are just the some of the devastating effects of climate change. These drastic phenomena can easily affect the environment of a human being. The environment physically affects the medical welfare of the inhabitants. If the environment is not preferable for the welfare of the people, then the best option for the inhabitants is to vacate and move somewhere better. But then, in these times, moving to another place will be costly; thus, the alternative is to adapt. However, adaptation poses further problems. For instance, farmers depend on the natural supply of water. But, if drought occurs, agricultural products will definitely decrease in quantity unless there would be an alternative for rain. The obvious solution is to build irrigation systems. But more often than not, especially in the third world countries, these projects for agriculture are less prioritized by the government forcing the people to resolve their problems on their own. In this scenario, scarcity is inevitable. As Schaefer concludes, when there is abundance, without proper authority and policies, there will never be control (Schaefer, 2012).
Third world countries are the more greatly affected by the climate change relative to the developed countries. Of course, it has never been easy to cope up with casualties and livelihood destruction brought about by the storms, hurricanes and droughts. For the more developed countries, they could cope up with drastic events like storms easily because they have more resources and better programs. However, for the third world countries, calamities add to the numerous problems they already have. Usually, when this happens, the first world countries try to help the lesser developed countries to recover. But then, this kind of help is only temporary. The more permanent solution still depends on how the government works out their problems.
Social actions are just reactions to environmental events. People grow food provided that the environment has the right resources. Climate change affects the environment drastically, and thus, affects the people as well. People adapt to their environment, but there is always that restriction or limit wherein adaptations may introduce further issues. Still, the worst case scenario is when the environment cannot recover anymore from the destructions brought about by climate change.

References

DeWeerdt, S. (2007). Climate Change, Coming Home: Global warming’s effect on population. World Watch Magazine 20(3). Web. 24 February 2015.
Schaefer, R. T. (2012). Health and the Environment. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.