Climate change impacts our society in many different ways. Drought can harm food production and human health. Flooding can lead to spread of disease, death, and damage ecosystems and infrastructure. Human health issues that result from drought, flooding, and other weather conditions increase the death rate, change food availability, and limit how much a worker can get done, and ultimately the productivity of our economy.
What Are the Effects of Climate Change?
A rapidly warming planet poses an existential threat to all life on earth. Just how bad it gets depends on how quickly we act.
Effects of climate change on weather
As global temperatures climb, widespread shifts in weather systems occur, making events like droughts, hurricanes, and floods more intense and unpredictable.
- Higher average temperatures
- Longer-lasting droughts
- More intense wildfires
- Stronger storms
Effects of climate change on the environment
From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly slight shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and the environment.
- Melting sea ice
- Sea level rise
- Flooding
- Warmer ocean waters and marine heat waves
- Ecosystem stressors
- Effects of climate change on agriculture
- Less predictable growing seasons
In a warming world, farming crops is more unpredictable—and livestock, which are sensitive to extreme weather, become harder to raise. Climate change shifts precipitation patterns, causing unpredictable floods and longer-lasting droughts. More frequent and severe hurricanes can devastate an entire season’s worth of crops. Meanwhile, the dynamics of pests, pathogens, and invasive species—all of which are costly for farmers to manage—are also expected to become harder to predict.
- Reduced soil health
- Food shortages
Effects of climate change on animals
It’s about far more than just the polar bears: Half of all animal species in the world’s most biodiverse places, like the Amazon rainforest and the Galapagos Islands, are at risk of extinction from climate change. And climate change is threatening species that are already suffering from the biodiversity crisis, which is driven primarily by changes in land and ocean use (like converting wild places to farmland) and direct exploitation of species (like overfishing and wildlife trade). With species already in rough shape—more than 500,000 species have insufficient habitat for long-term survival—unchecked climate change is poised to push millions over the edge.
Effects of climate change on humans
Ultimately, the way climate change impacts weather, the environment, animals, and agriculture affects humanity as well. But there’s more. Around the world, our ways of life—from how we get our food to the industries around which our economies are based—have all developed in the context of relatively stable climates. As global warming shakes this foundation, it promises to alter the very fabric of society. At worst, this could lead to widespread famine, disease, war, displacement, injury, and death. For many around the world, this grim forecast is already their reality. In this way, climate change poses an existential threat to all human life.
- Human health
- Worsening inequity
