Karla King
STA 1001- Climate Change Project
11/21/2021
Climate change
1.) Discuss those theories that describe the benefits of global warming and whether they
are likely correct.
Robert Mendelsohn, an environmental economist at Yale University, argues that global
warming will increase agricultural production in the northern half of the United States
while the southern half will be able to maintain its current output. Over the long term, he
believes global warming will counteract the negative effects. Peter S. Curtis, an ecologist
at Ohio State University and colleagues, tested such theories with experiments and found
that increased carbon dioxide levels do increase plant growth. However, the nutritional
value of the produce drastically decreased so much so, that the increase in growth was
unable to outweigh the decrease in nutrition. According to the scientific report, Impacts
of a Warming Arctic, there will be less sea ice and thus easier to extract oil from the
Arctic, however, oil spills in icy seas are much harder to clean up than spills in open
waters and would result in many species in the Arctic being put in harm’s way.
Additionally, structural issues such as broken pipelines can negatively impact the cost-
benefit ratio.
2.) What are some possible costs of global warming? In your opinion, do the possible
costs outweigh the possible benefits? Explain.
There are many possible costs of global warming such as a lack of water can have
negative effects on the health of humans. Additionally, global warming can be
detrimental to the production of our food, flooding can cause damage to ecosystems,
infrastructure, and spread diseases. Human health issues can result in increased mortality,
reduction in food availability and impact labor productivity. The benefits of global
warming do not outweigh the costs. In fact, I think global warming will do much more
harm than good.
3.)
