Because of the delaying effect of the oceans , surface temperatures do not respond immediately to greenhouse gas emissions, so climate change will continue for many decades after atmospheric concentrations have stabilized. Meanwhile, the balance of the evidence suggests that the climate has already started responding to past emissions from human activity. Half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coastline.
Ecosystems involve complex systems of biological controls over pests and pathogens .
Instead, parasite species such as weeds, rodents, insects, bacteria and viruses rapidly reproduce and colonize disturbed environments. In November 1999, separate studies conducted by the Scottish Executive's Marine Laboratory in Aberdeen, the Fisheries Laboratory of the Faroes, and the University of Bergen in Norway, all suggest that global warming is disrupting the North Atlantic Drif t, which brings warm water northward from the Gulf Stream and moderates temperatures in western Europe. The most serious threat to the reefs is global warming. Coral reefs are crucial anchors for marine ecosystems, and more than a half billion people depend on reefs for their livelihood, researchers at the conference say. Click here to read a short, intelligible explanation of how global warming is expected to affect the affect the hydrological cycle, by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.