Climate change can be defined as changes in the earth's weather, including changes in temperature, wind patterns and rainfall, especially the increase in the temperature of the earth's atmosphere that is caused by the increase of particular gases, especially carbon dioxide. It refers to any substantial change in the Earth’s climate that lasts for an extended period of time. The effects of climate change can already be observed, however, it is thought that the consequences of climate change for the future will be much more severe and have a bigger impact upon the human race. Many scientists have predicted that, the potential future effects of global climate change include an impact on the weather, coastal areas, ecosystems and habitats, agriculture and human health. Whether we decide to take action or not, we will be forced to live with the consequences of climate change.

Firstly, climate change is predicted to have a strong impact on the weather. Recently, the earth’s temperature has been increasing. The hottest years ever recorded were 1998, 2005 and 2010. Furthermore, the period between 2001 and 2010 was the warmest recorded decade. In only a decade the earth has warmed up. In the future, this could have an effect on the amount of extreme weather events such as cyclones, droughts, wildfires and tropical storms. An increase in temperature would also mean that more heat would be added into the atmosphere therefore causing the water cycle to speed up. It is predicted that 6 per cent more water vapour will occur for every 1ºC that increases. Another change that may occur is an increased frequency of heat waves. Heat waves can be devastating as seen in 2003 when in Australia alone heat waves caused 30,000 people to die. In addition to this, storm intensity and distribution is also predicted to rise. Countries will be made more vulnerable to cyclones and tropical storms, if sea temperatures continue to rise. As cyclones need temperatures above 27 ºC to form, if temperature further increase the distribution of cyclones and tropical storms will grow even more widespread and further from the equator. All in all, weather is predicted to be hugely impacted by climate change in the future.

Secondly, coastal areas are predicted to be heavily impacted by climate change. An increase in temperature caused by rising carbon emissions may result in melting of ice sheets thus causing a rise in sea levels which have the potential to fully submerge islands and low lying areas such as the Maldives.In early 2005 many islands of Kiribati in the Pacific islands were inundated by high spring tides and many more islands are predicted to become fully submerged in the future due to climate change. Coastal areas may also be in higher risk of incidences of extreme weather events such as cyclones and storm surges. Due to this increased risk, billions and billions of dollars is estimated to be spent on building and adapting coastal settlements for improved building structure and construction of sea walls. Climate change is predicted to have a massive impact on coastal areas.

Thirdly, the consequences of climate change include an influence on ecosystems and habitats. The availability of foods such as flowering plants, seeds and insects, could change if the climate continued to warm up, which would provide problems for animals that migrate like birds. Animals or plants may not hatch or bloomed at the correct time or in some cases not at all, which would cause species that live of those to decline in numbers, which would in turn effect the species that preys upon those and so on. Subsequently, entire food webs could become imbalanced and endangered. Coral bleaching is predicted to be another consequence of global warming which also has the potential to cause the collapse in ecosystems. An increase in water temperatures could result in population decreases of fish species such as salmon and trout that require colder waters to survive. Climate change