N5 Geography climate change

6 solutions for climate change

• Governments can invest in public transport, eg, trains, buses, and trams – reducing the need for private cars, leading to lower emissions of nitrous oxide.

• Promoting and supporting the use of electric vehicles and the infrastructure required to support them. Also, increasing taxes on fuel-guzzling vehicles discourage their purchase and use.

• Investing in low-carbon technologies such as nuclear power stations generates large amounts of energy with minimal carbon emissions.

• Afforestation projects - planting more trees helps absorb CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.

• Low emission zones (LEZ), motorists have to pay a fee for driving in the LEZ. The aim is to discourage people from driving into the zone with gas guzzling cars.. The income generated is used to improve public transport.

• Constructing sea walls in low-lying coastal areas helps mitigate the effects of rising sea levels.

6 global impacts of climate change

• Rising temperatures lead to the melting of sea ice, resulting in a rise in sea levels.

• Elevated sea levels lead to the flooding of low-lying coastal areas, such as the Maldives. Entire islands facing flooding mean that inhabitants to become environmental refugees in search of new places to live.

• Coastal flooding destroys valuable farmland, often leading to crop failure and famine.

• Rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere leads to ocean acidification. This process negatively affects marine ecosystems, especially coral reefs and shellfish populations.

• Climate change is associated with an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and heatwaves. These events can result in widespread damage to infrastructure, displacement of populations, and massive economic losses.

• Rising sea levels cause the water table to become saline due to seawater intrusion, rendering it undrinkable for local populations and causing droughts.

Local impacts of climate change

• Climate change can lead to increased health care costs due to the spread of vector-borne diseases like malaria and dengue fever.

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