Climate Hot Spots Essay

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has created a new, interactive way to learn about the local consequences of global warming. The Climate Hot Map allows you to travel the world, exploring the places (or “hot spots”) where scientists have gathered evidence for climate changes that are already underway and where they are now assessing the risks associated with further warming. This web feature builds upon work originally undertaken by a coalition of nonprofit groups that was first published in 1999. (The original coalition included Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, World Resources Institute, andWorld Wildlife Fund.)

About the Climate Hot Map and the Hot Spots

The purpose of the Climate Hot Map is threefold:

• to share the evidence demonstrating that global warming is already underway and affecting our physical and biological world;
• to emphasize that this is a problem with consequences the world over; and
• to motivate viewers to take action by showing how places they know and love are at risk of irreversible change.

Given these goals, the hot spots were chosen with care, using three basic criteria: scientific robustness, multiple stresses, and presence of multiple impacts.

For homework 1, visit http://www.climatehotmap.org/global-warming-locations/(Note: The Climate Hot Spot map is no longer maintained, so you cannot pick a spot from the map itself. However, the link provided takes you to a non-visual list of hot spots organized more or less by continent). Identify a Climate Hot Spot in the tropics that you would like to learn more about. Click on the location from the menu bar on the left side of the page. You will then be directed to a page with details on the effects of climate change at this hot spot. Review the detailed description and be sure to also click on the link to Regional Solutions.

For your homework, please submit your answers to the following questions as a word document to the canvas assignment submission folder. Please number your answers and include the question prompts on your assignment as it will assist in our grading. This will be graded on comprehensiveness and depth of thought. You must not copy directly from the hot spot description in preparing your report. In total, this should be about two pages long.

1. Which Climate Hot Spot did you choose, and why? Is there anything you already know about the place you chose?
2. What are the main climate threats to this Hot Spot? Find and include at least one visual of the threat in action.
3. What are the main impacts of those climate threats to this Hot Spot? On biodiversity? On human communities? On the economy?
4. What is being done or could be done to mitigate these threats and impacts (this should require additional google searching!)?
5. Search for, identify and share information about one organization that is doing work to mitigate the climate threats and impacts you’ve discussed (it cannot be the Union of Concerned Scientists, as that is where this tool comes from).
6. What was the most interesting thing you learned from this activity?

The content of your report must be written by you and in no way should plagiarize information found on wikipedia or the climate hotspot page. We will submit your reports to turnitin.com to ensure it is your own original work.