of south America, and the area of Antarctica near Australia. In the northern hemisphere, warming is strongest in Alaska, northwest and eastern Canada, most of the Soviet Union, and parts of Southern Asia, North Africa and south west Europe. Climate has cooled in Great Britain and northern and eastern Europe. In the USA scientists found no overall warming trend in weather records kept since the nineteenth century, however keepin mind the United States covers only 1.5 percent of the earth's surface. As warming continues, every place on the earth will be effected.
In the frozen heart of the last ice age, 18,000 years ago, the temperature was only about nine degrees Fahrenheit colder then today. So a change of a few degrees can have a dramatic effects. Todays most sophisticated climatic models estimate the global temperature will rise between 3 and 9 degrees Fahrenheit in the next century.
This could occur as early as the year 2050. Here are the large scale changes the rise might bring: As water warms it expands, taking up more space. So warmer ocean water, with added melt-water from glaciers, will rise by twenty inches to five feet in the next 50 to 100 years.
Just a 1 foot rise in sea level can cause shorelines to recede a hundred feet, and in flat terrain, a thousand feet. If ocean waters rise several feet, whole beaches could wash away. Many homes, hotels, other buildings, and entire cities will be threatened. Salt water will pollute freshwater wells that millions of people use for drinking water. Coastal marshes, which are vital nurseries for fish and other ocean life will be endangered. Along undeveloped coast, marshes may survive because they can move inland with the rising waters. In many places seawalls and other human structures will prevent this process and the marshes will be destroyed.
In the United States ocean water may cover the Florida Keys and large parts of southern Florida and Louisiana.
Two kinds of ac...