The Impact of Climatic Change on North America and Sub-Saharan Africa

Running head: THE IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE 1
THE IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
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THE IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
Climate change effects on North America Verses climate change impacts on sub-
Sahara Africa
Introduction
According to reports by different researche, climate change tends to affect regions
through both direct and indirect impacts. However, Reports from previous studies shows that
various regions will face challenges differently as per climate change is concerned according
to their weather.
Region background
North America is ranked as the third-largest continent in the world with an
approximate population of 515 million people. It covers Central American peninsula up to the
north Arctic Ocean and experiences a range of effects due to the change in climate. On
matters of greenhouse gas production, it is higher than any other continent (Burke et al.,
2015, p.235).
Whereas sub-Sahara Africa is a developing region in Africa with a great climate and
cultural diversity. Approximately, its population approaches 2 billion people, which rised to 4
billion as per United Nation department of economic and social affairs 2013 (Descheemaeker
et al., 2016, p.2343).
Comparison of climate change impacts
Change in temperature.
Reports compiled from previous research indicates that North America experiences
higher temperatures during the nights as compared to day. According to Hoegh-Guldberg

Running head: THE IMPACT OF CLIMATIC CHANGE
(2017), North western Canada and Alaska has a significant warming followed by South-
eastern, Canada and the interior. Due to greenhouse production effects, spring warming has
extended the growing season by 2 days per decade
Compared to the change in temperature in Sub-Sahara Africa, projected warming is
less strong than that of global land area. African temperatures especially in summer increases
at 1.5 oc per annum and this is expected to happen up to 2050 (Thornton et al., 2014, p.3328).
Rising sea level
Projections of sea level are not uniform across the world. According to the research
report by Tilman et al. (2017), sea level rise and storms in North America is due to aggressive
coastal investment plans, extended urbanisation, rising property values increasing coastal
population among other factors. There is also a sense of correlation between sea level,
erosion and intensive storms mostly in the US, Gulf and Atlantic Coasts.
Compared to North America, the rise of sea level in Sub-Sahara Africa tends to be
higher than the global average with a range of 10%. It rises according to different locations in
Sub-Saharan coastlines. However, there is no different between Abidjan, Loma, Lagos in
West Africa and Maputo in southeast Africa (Descheemaeker et al., 2016, p. 2331)
Human health
Due to extreme weather events in North America for example heat waves, drought, air
pollution, among others, human health has been endangered and this is evidenced by various
diseases like cancer, which has led to high mortality rates. There has been increased cases of
respiratory illness, West Nile viruses, vector-borne illness and Lyme diseases resulting from
climatic change in North America (Hautier et al., 2015, p.340).