is taking a toll on many areas of the economy. The costs it is creating, and the costs of preventing it, are highly important.In the agricultural sector, global warming
may preclude the raising of crops in areas in which they are presently grown. For the most part, food growing will be most difficult near the equator if present trends persist.
Some scientists estimate that for every 1 degree Celsius that the temperature increases, crops will have to be grown 300 kilometers north of where they are grown now.
This will undoubtedly have profound effects on farming, and the economy in general. It will mean that certain countries will
become incapable of growing crops they have depended upon for centuries, and will come to depend on northern nations.
Rises in the sea level will threaten low elevation land in many countries. Islands especially could see massive decreases in their land areas. This will mean that many countries will become less capable of producing their own food, and will have to turn to the well-insulated food growing countries.
A rise in the global temperature would affect the world's
heating and cooling needs as well. In warm countries that already use no heating, cooling costs would increase. In very cold countries, the temperature would become more moderate and the need for heating would decrease. This will affect the costs countries face, pushing them in opposite directions.
Some real attempts to quantify the costs of global warming have been made, but they are very difficult to do accurately. A variety of ways to combat the problems presented
by global warming have also been thought up, but their effects are difficult to predict as well.
