What things are happening as the result of global warming?

Unchecked global warming could result in a host of problems for our planet, the population, wildlife, and natural resources, according to the majority of international scientists who specialize in climatology and atmospheric sciences. The effects may not be limited to negative changes, and may not be limited to only effects on the environment. Some of the effects, according to the experts, could be:

• Increase of the spread of some diseases, especially tropical diseases that currently are geographically limited in scope by the cooler climates in some parts of the world.

• Warmer ocean temperatures, which may create more frequent and more intense tropical storms and hurricanes. Much debate still surrounds this, however, because the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones varies considerably in time and ocean basin, primarily in response to various modes of low-frequency variability (such as ENSO, for example). It is likely that warmer water will allow existing storms to become stronger, and there is evidence that this is already occurring. Whether the frequency of tropical cyclones will increase is currently unresolved. In addition to the impact on cyclones, warmer seas could kill coral reefs that protect our coastlines and other marine life unable to adjust to warmer waters.

• Alteration of the major ocean currents, such as the "Atlantic Conveyor" that warms Western Europe. This could result in much colder temperatures in Western Europe if the conveyor no longer circulates the warmer waters to that area.
  

• Increases in the probability of occurrences and intensity of droughts, heat waves, and other severe weather.

• Creation of massive economic consequences from damages caused by the extreme weather, storms, and flooding. Emergency response housing and provision of basic needs for the homeless and displaced residents of flooded low lying areas and highly populated coastal areas could bankrupt entire nations.
  

• The melting of the Polar ice caps, which could result in raised sea levels and flooding of heavily populated coastal areas. The salinity of the ocean waters may be diluted from the melting fresh water, which could be devastating to some forms of marine life.
  

• Loss of habitat for wildlife, extinction of species which are unable to adapt to the climate changes, or that rely on another species of animal or plant, which is facing extinction, for their survival.

• Not all results of global climate change would have to be negative for everyone everywhere. Some geographical areas could actually benefit from a lengthened growing season that increases the overall crop production in that area. If control of climate change is achieved at that point, there could be a long term benefit for that location. This could improve that local economy, provide jobs and critically needed food supplies to offset losses in other climate zones.
  

• Habitat movement could also occur and some species could thrive and multiply better in their increased geographical areas. This could be good, providing new prey or food sources, increasing the numbers in the species that were in decline before moving to the new ecosystem; or not so good, by creating imbalance in an established ecosystem. As we have seen historically, there can be some negative effects from introducing non-native species to new environments. The proliferation of the introduced species into the new ecology can be devastating to the native species that have new competition for the resources, potentially a new predator to which they have no defense, or introduction of new diseases.
  

The connection between life as we know it and the temperature of our planet is in some ways obvious, although at the same time obscured by the complexities and dynamics of nature. In the past 6000 years, for example, there has been an 11 degree temperature change according to science experts. Almost 0.6 degrees if this has occurred since the lowest temps of the mini ice age (era 1850).

According to the science community, "global climate change" may be a less confusing term than "global warming," because some geographical areas may actually see a shift to colder weather temperatures (as in the example above regarding the Atlantic Conveyor), while other areas may have warmer weather. Changes also could be in the amount of rainfall vs. drought in a particular geographic area. The Earth's climate's warming trend, that has been measured by climatologists and atmospheric scientists, should not be confused with variations in weather. See the related questions below.


Comments not directly answering the question were moved to the discussion section. See the Discussion area for those comments and opinions.
Weather changes, warmer weather, ice caps melt, sea levels rise, Ozone layer allows more heat from the sun to pass through the atmosphere. as a result the surface heat is retained in particular where cloud presence is greater causing more humidity and heat to be trapped in the atmosphere. The problem is that the visible ice (or surface ice) as ice floats adds more water to the oceans and if there is melting over land masses it adds more water. The Ice already in the oceans should not make that much difference as its conversion from solid to liquid should not have a great impact. As the area and mass should be the same. Try it with an ICE CUBE in a glass. But that small bit on a world scale causes islands to sink. There are also other factors such as solar activity and Volcanic activity besides the claimed pollution. We changed a lot of the land mass with buildings and roads but depleted forests. This may also have an impact on the surface temperature of the city areas and may cause small temperature variations effecting the weather.Ever notice that it is warmer in cities and built up areas than out in the country. 1 to 4 degrees Celsius if not more. Interestingly pollution is being blamed for the changes. But I believe that other factors are just as responsible if not more so. As the earth has had cycles of change and it may have more to do with these cycles we may have just slowed or accelerated the process.
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None of the above actually answers the question of what things ARE happening. Currently we have seen 11 degrees of warming over the past 10,000 years and almost 0.6 degrees of warming since the lowest temps of the last mini ice age (1850). If we go from 1850 forward, which is what political figures want you to believe is the fastest warming period ever, we find that not much has actually happened. Polar bears are still growing in numbers. The Antarctic is still growing in ice volume. One of the things we have noticed is a slight shrinkage of Arctic ice (about 4%). This appears to be offset by the gain though in the Antarctic. We have also seen no real change in the frequency or intensity of tropical storms.

Basically, nothing outside of normal weather is the current answer. Nothing new under the sun is the old saying.
The ice caps are melting causing the sea levels to rise.