Global Warming Early Warming Signs

Since the Global Warming: Early Warning Signs map was originally released in November 1999, the picture of how global warming can affect us has become increasingly clear. By now it is very apparent that a warming climate could have substantial and direct impacts on the health of our ecosystems, food and water sources, and on humans, especially children and the elderly. It is well understood that these impacts will occur around the globe and will disproportionately affect the poorest members of our global community.

We have undertaken an update of the map (winter 2003) to reflect the growing knowledge of the impacts of global warming. For this update, they have focused on many of the regions for which they had little data in 1999. Below is a list of the new map points. These are listed by event type. Click here to see where these are occuring

• Heat waves and periods of unusually warm weather
• Spreading disease
• Earlier spring arrival
• Plant and animal range shifts and population changes
• Ocean warming, sea-level rise and coastal flooding
• Coral reef bleaching
• Glaciers melting
• Arctic and Antarctic warming
• Downpours, heavy snowfalls, and flooding
• Droughts and fires