Fragile Environments and Climate Change

Fragile Environments and Climate Change

1. The DISTRIBUTIONS and CHARACTERISTICS of fragile environments

   • There is a delicate balance between non-living parts (climate, rocks, soils) and living parts (plants, animals).
   • Natural hazards, such as fires, high winds and volcanic eruptions, have always disturbed environments and made them more fragile
   • People have disturbed 90 per cent of the Earth
   • GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION of fragile environments is most influenced by the impact of three processes – desertification, deforestation and climate change

2. The CAUSES of desertification

   • Changing rainfall patterns
     • Drought
   • Soil erosion
   • Intensity of rainfall
   • Population growth
   • Migration
   • Overgrazing
   • Overcultivation
   • Deforestation
   • Fuel supply

3. The CAUSES of climate change

   • Variations in the amount of solar radiation received by the Earth
   • Volcanic activity
   • Release of greenhouse gases, mostly via human activity
   • Milankovitch cycles

4. The IMPACTS of desertification

   • SOCIAL, ECONOMIC and ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
     • Reduced agricultural output
     • Malnutrition
     • Famine
     • Migration
   • STRATEGIES to MANAGE desertification
     • How TECHNOLOGY can help to reduce the threat of desertification and water-resource shortage in fragile environments

5. The IMPACTS of deforestation

   • SOCIAL, ECONOMIC and ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS
     • Flooding
     • Loss of plants and animals (biodiversity)
     • Native tribes
     • Increased soil erosion
     • Contribution to climate change
       • Loss of forests and increased burning
     • Economic development

6. Different RESPONSES to global warming and climate change from individuals, organisations and governments LEARNING OBJECTIVES

   • Managing rainforests in a SUSTAINABLE way

7. CHARACTERISITCS of deforestation

   • Clear felling
   • Selective felling

8. The CAUSES of deforestation

   • Revenue from selling timber
   • Land needed to house and feed growing populations
     • Agricultue
     • Road building
     • Land for farmers
   • Mining
   • HEP

9. CHARACTERISTICS of desertification

   • Absence of surface water
   • dried up watercourses and ponds
   • lowering of the water table
   • vegetation becomes degraded or completely los
   • increased soil erosion as bare soil is exposed to wind
   • increase in salt content of the soil
   • soil becomes less usable
   • increasing presence of dry, loose sand

10. EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

    • Change in climate will allow farming to be pushed further towards the poles and to higher altitudes
      • Increased food production in these areas
    • CASE STUDY: UK response to climate change
    • CASE STUDY: response of Tuvalu to climate change
    • On fragile environments
      • Increase in extreme weather
      • Warmer seas means more intense storms
      • Changing distribution of ecosystems
      • Rising sea levels
    • On people
      • Farmland in arid areas is less productive
      • Drowning cities
      • Changing settlement patterns
      • Reduced employment opportunities
      • Conflict
      • Health & wellbeing challenges
    • Use and interpret graphs showing climate and sea level changes

11. CASE STUDY: the impacts of desertification in the Sahel and Darling Murry Basin

12. Different APPROACHES to SUSTAINABLE use and management of rainforest regions - AMAZON RAINFOREST

    • CASE STUDY: how Costa Rica aims to limit deforestation

13. Identify patterns of deforestation using maps

Images and files in the map