Climate change. It’s a topic that has recently been spreading around the world like never before as this topic has spread far with the use of social media, talk shows, news channels, activists in the streets, as well as protests. But before talking about how Climate change impacts the environment and our surrounding elements, we will take a look at 3 articles that will explain the reason why it’s such a big issue and answer the question “How does climate change caused by industrial factories affect the environment in cascading effects?”

The first article [1] speaks about the effects of industrial factories on the environment in china. It starts off talking about agriculture and how it’s being affected by the pollution caused and how the economic sector of this can fail due to the ongoing effects. Further talking about the Economic Cascading Effects, known as ECE, states how it is caused by an “industrial linkage under the influence of warming”, and how “ agriculture and the food system will be increasingly affected by projected future climate change”. A domino effect by these examples would mean even more labor by the working class in the community to maintain the agriculture on farms. But how exactly does the environment changing affect the crops? Well, some crops are sensitive to 

change, and some cannot adapt to the sudden changes in temperature, atmospheric conditions, weather, and solar radiation. These changes are caused by the carbon dioxide emissions among many factors, and the fact that they both block sunlight, yet trap radiation by the sun. Because of this change, many plants and crops die out, only leaving a lucky few surviving crops left. With food costs going up due to the food shortage of a specific fruit, vegetable, or grain,  many will go hungry and not be able to afford a sustainable lifestyle even with their current jobs, especially in china, where there are 1.4 billion citizens and food goes quickly. With starvation then starting in the later phases of global warming, the people and citizens would eventually start protesting for the closure of factories or industrial plants, slowing the production of exported goods. 

The second article [2] is all about the effects of global warming on a global scale. With the title presenting the idea of a full force climate impact by 2030. This alarming and dramatic timeframe of 2030, isn’t even far away with only 8 years left to reach the predicted “climate impact”, and yet we are already being met with irregular weather events and more uncertainty in the farming areas around the world. With the article stating exactly this, it states “Increasingly frequent extreme weather events could lead to more food insecurity, displacement of people, and conflict within vulnerable countries by 2030”. What this simple line of text means, is that even war can occur by the increase of temperature, and it’s not so out of the box when you think about it. If a country cannot sustain itself and has tried all options, the last resort would be to start a war and steal that of another country’s just to survive. This has happened in the past and it wouldn’t be odd to think that it could happen in modern times as well. These changes would influence and impact the world on a global scale, and this single example could be one of the many cases by the year 2030. The article goes on to further explain the ways in which situations like these can be prevented, and that is funding countries so that they are better prepared to “tackle” climate change and its effects. Quoting Daniel Quiggin, a researcher on the case, it states ‘“Without more aid for adaptation and poverty reduction, food insecurity due to extreme heat, drought, storm damage and multiple crop failures could result in political instability and conflict and drive increased migration to Southern Europe”’. This reveals the urgency in which global warming is approaching quickly and how readiness is vital for stability in all sectors of their government. The importance of these effects are shown by the authors choosing to end this article off by quoting Ritu Bharadwaj, a senior researcher at the institute of international institute for environment and development, “”These issues will only escalate as climate change impacts get worse.””.

The third article [3] is more focused on the idea that global warming could impact ecological interactions which are vital for the ecosystems and species around the world. With the increasing temperatures due to greenhouse gasses caused by cars, factories, livestock, etc, there is less rainfall. The temperatures are much difficult to reach a low where the rain can fall back down, creating something called a drought, and it’s what was described in the article on how it

 “affected precipitation and soil water availability”. Without stability in both of these things, trees will start dying and wilting due to insufficient water reaching its roots, and the pollinators of flowers and plants started decreasing in the drier summer months. With seed-spreading insects and animals no longer in a stable supply in an ecosystem, once again, domino effects start occurring. The animals that rely on fruits to grow, start dying out or migrating into human populated areas, or areas which have food available for them. An example of an effect like this would be if the water in a river where salmon swim upstream, starts getting evaporated and is completely dried due to a drought. What happens afterwards is that the salmon won’t be able to lay their eggs and reproduce in that area, leaving lower numbers of their species at the end of the drought when compared to the beginning. This can affect the fishing industries to bears and other animals which eat the fish, leading to a collapse of the ecosystem. Another example is one due to the “extensive exotic Eucalyptus globulus industrial plantations” which can reduce soil moisture and lead the native trees with less water, affecting the “plant community structure” which has to maintain a balance in order to function at its best efficiency. Climate change’s effects on the ecosystem of rainforests, forests, woods, and the native species respective to their environment can lead to a negative effect and decline of their surrounding areas, which affects not just the plants and animals living there, but us too. 

When combining these three articles, we can see the effects of global warming in detail. It’s not simply just the weather changing a little bit, but the balance being thrown off by the actions of Industrial factories and its cascading effects. From seeing how the economy of China is being affected by the lack of agriculture, to the possibility of war from the limited crops and supplies being grown, and tying it back into the ecosystem and how events like droughts can affect the species and habitats of native species. Although pollution is not solely caused by factories, it is one of the leading causes of effects that are direct and prominent.

Sources:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652620339962 [1] 

Chengfang Huang, Ning Li,  Zhengtao Zhang, Yuan Liu, Xi Chen, Fang Wang

The Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster, MOE, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

bAcademy of Disaster Reduction and Emergency Management, Ministry of Emergency Management & Ministry of Education, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

Received 14 January 2020, Revised 17 July 2020, Accepted 24 August 2020, Available online 15 September 2020, Version of Record 28 September 2020.

Handling editor Cecilia Maria Villas Bôas de Almeida

2 Citations

https://phys.org/news/2021-10-scientists-global-cascade-climate-impacts.html [2]

by Ruth Douglas, SciDev.Net

5 Citations

https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecs2.2485 [3] 

Francisco E. Fontúrbel, Antonio Lara, David Lobos, Christian Little

First published: 12 December 2018 https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2485

Corresponding Editor: Theresa Crimmins.

3 Citations