In South America, there were many interesting points I read about for the future regional climate changes. There is a negative trend in the mean precipitation. There is also noticeable glacial retreat in the Tropical Andes. The precipitation changes were consistent with El Nino, for example the rainfall would increase over southeastern and northwestern South America, but decrease over eastern Amazonia. The predicted future regional climate changes are that the temperatures will increase over the whole country, and there will also be an increase in precipitation in south South America, and a decrease in the extreme north of the continent.
Bolivia is located in Central and South America. Some of the major impacts that happen in and around my country fall under all three systems which are physical, biological, and human and management. The physical systems that have an impact are floods, rivers, lakes, and drought which have a medium impact but are a major contribution to climate change. The biological system that has an impact is wildfires with minor contributions to climate change. Lastly, the human and managed systems including livelihoods, health, and economics have a medium impact but are also a large contributor to climate change. Some key risks that my country is facing are water availability in places that depend on glacier-melt, and also places that do not receive a lot of precipitation. Another key risk is flooding and landslides in urban and rural areas because of extreme precipitation. There is also decreased food production and quality. The last key risk my country faces is the spread of diseases in latitude and altitude from blood-sucking arthropods.
After reading the detailed look at the future climate, there are many interesting things to be seen. There already have been increasing trends in annual rainfall in southeast South America, and decreasing trends in central-Southern Chile. Some predictions from the article suggest that there will be an increase in temperatures by 2100. Changes in stream flow and water availability were observed and projected to continue in the future affecting already vulnerable regions. Land use changes are one of the main contributors to environmental degradation which leads to negative impacts of climate change. Sea level rise and human activities on coastal and marine ecosystems pose a threat to fish stocks, corals, and tourism. Changes in agriculture productivity with consequences for food security are associated with climate change. Lastly, changes in weather and climate patterns are having a negative affect on human health by increasing morbidity, mortality, and disabilities.
The most interesting threat that I choose was the flooding and landslides. Flooding and landslides in rural and urban areas will affect everyone and everything. Being a business major, I do care about economics, and to rebuild or clear all of the damages done from a landslide or flooding would be very expensive. It would be hard for anyone to recover from a big event of landslides and/or flooding. I also care a lot for animals. Back at my house, we have a total of seven animals right now. Many animals do not have wings including my favorite ones, so it would be very hard for them to escape the flooding as well as the landslides. These are some reasons why this vulnerability sticks out as a big one in my head as opposed to some of the other ones I could have chosen.
