Despite the fact that global warming is a subject of debate in the political community, the effects and characteristics of climate change are already being felt throughout the world. The effects of global warming threaten to be generalized, but also catastrophic. We will all suffer its consequences to a greater or lesser extent.

Sara Roversi, an entrepreneur and innovator who serves as President of the Future Food Institute, has been focused on Prosperity Thinking, a model she created to facilitate sustainable development mindsets. She has been working diligently to promote awareness of the impact global food systems have in contributing to climate change. She organized the Food Innovation Global Missions, educational world tours to explore the challenges of the food system, and lends her expertise to industry and governments in advocating more sustainable strategies. Her primary focus is on catalyzing food systems and the way they impact life on this planet, and for the people.

Sara, like many others, is quite concerned about climate change. Here are some of the most obvious signs of climate change.

1. Rise in sea level

When the surface temperature warms, glacial ice, sea ice, as well as polar ice shelf melt. When this happens, the amount of water flowing into the world’s oceans increases, leading to drastically rising sea levels, endangering many cities below sea level. Scientists have speculated that if the ice in Antarctica, Greenland, and the Arctic melts at this rate, it could raise sea levels by more than 20 meters by 2100.

The thickness of the ice has been reduced by half since 1950.

2. Heat waves

Severe heatwaves have become increasingly common, and the reason is none other than that greenhouse gases are trapped inside the atmosphere. Studies indicate that these heatwaves will continue to increase in the coming years becoming 100 times worse in the future. This will lead to an increase in heat-related illnesses and also trigger countless fires.

3. Killer storms

When the temperature of the oceans gets warmer, the storms are more intense. Climate change will cause storms to become extremely serious, as well as more frequent. Warm ocean water will fuel the intensity of the storms and result in more extremely devastating hurricanes. Effects like these are already being felt today – we have already seen that in the last 30 years, the severity and number of cyclones, hurricanes, and storms have increased and have almost doubled. All of this leads to flooding, loss of life, as well as property damage. Rain patterns are also changing as a result of climate change.

4. Drought

Droughts are at the opposite pole of this spectrum and we can see that they are already wreaking havoc in various parts of our planet. The planet is warming and, in turn, freshwater is diminishing, leading to poor conditions in agriculture. There is a severe water shortage that is causing disruptions in global food production and hunger is becoming more and more widespread.

There are historical lakes that are disappearing all over the world, such as Poyang (the largest in China), Poopó (Bolivia), or the Aral Sea.

5. Endangered species

The desertification, rising ocean temperatures, and deforestation are contributing to disastrous and irreversible changes that are occurring in the habitat and threaten to endanger several species that could soon become extinct. The polar bear happens to be the first example and we see that their numbers are continually falling as they struggle to acclimate to the loss of ice in the Arctic regions. A crucial characteristic for human success is biodiversity, and the loss of flora and fauna due to mass extinction that threatens our planet seriously endangers the continuity of the human race.