Ripple Warming

The “ripple effect” is not a biological phenomenon confined just to isolated food webs (if there is such a thing). Global warming is having the exact same effect on the entire world as we speak. In many ways we see the consequences of a universal warming trend playing out on our environment. Like what?

So, the temperature rises a little bit. Ok, that, after all, is global warming. Well, that temperature shift causes the evaporation of bodies of water, such as Lake Chad, a vital water source for Nigerians. The lake is no longer a lake. It is a large, dusty, depression in the earth.

Now we have dehydrated Nigerians, who were not well off to begin with. Bad. Very bad.

What else, say you?

Well, all this dust gets kicked up by wind, as you can probably imagine, if you’ve ever been on a baseball field during some wind or otherwise encountered a current of air acting on small particles. This dust does not simply roll a few yards, or a few hundred yards. Nay, sir, it is carried about to surronding islands.

So, dusty islands are the result of global warming?

Wrong again. The inahbitants inhale the particulate matter. This makes the kids get asthma and other lung problems. The dust that doesn’t make it to a pair of lungs? It lands in the ocean, clouding it significantly. Photosynthesis becomes near impossible, and this interrupts the ocean food web. And we all know about the ripple effect in a food web.  Once again, we see the fragility of nature. This is just one of the many existing examples and possibilites thatshow global warming’s potential for disaster.