Climate warming is causing our planet to undergo severe changes, including extreme weather events, ecosystem collapse, and rising sea levels. What kind of future are we facing?
Climate warming is the increase in temperature caused by the greenhouse effect. Gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrogen oxides (NOX) are called greenhouse gases because they allow short wavelengths of light, such as visible light (0.4-1 microns), to enter the Earth, but absorb longer wavelengths, such as infrared light (5-20 microns), that are trying to leave the Earth. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the atmosphere would remain at a temperature of -20 degrees Celsius if it were composed entirely of nitrogen and oxygen, but 1% of other gases would maintain an average temperature of +15 degrees Celsius.
It’s only recently that climate warming has become a serious concern. Until the early 20th century, many people didn’t pay much attention to climate change, but after the industrial revolution, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increased dramatically and global average temperatures began to rise. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, in particular, have increased by more than 40% since pre-industrial times, and as of 2025, the concentration of CO₂ in the atmosphere is expected to be around 424-426 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest level in human history and continues to rise. This increase in greenhouse gases is closely linked to human activity, especially fossil fuel use and deforestation.
Although the amount of carbon dioxide is actually small – only 38 per 100,000 air molecules – this small amount of carbon dioxide has a large impact on temperature rise through the feedback system of temperature. The feedback system is a positive feedback in which the increase in temperature due to the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide increases the amount of water vapor in the air, which in turn increases the greenhouse effect, causing the temperature to rise repeatedly.
Climate change is also occurring rapidly on the Korean Peninsula. Over the past 100 years, from 1912 to 2008, the average temperature increase at six stations (Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Daegu, Mokpo, and Gangneung) was 1.7℃, twice as high as the global average. In the 2020s, this upward trend is becoming more pronounced, especially in the summer months, when extreme temperatures and heat wave days are increasing. According to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase at the current rate, the average temperature at the end of the 21st century on the Korean Peninsula is expected to be about 4°C higher than the average temperature at the end of the 20th century.
What will happen as temperatures rise? The first place to change is the natural environment. First, the physical environment of water changes as the climate warms. The most extreme example of this is the collapse of icebergs in the Arctic. When the Earth’s temperature rises above a certain point, icebergs collapse because more glaciers melt than they form. Glaciers also play an important role in increasing the Earth’s reflectivity to the sun, and as they melt, they naturally reflect less sunlight, which accelerates warming. According to one article, researchers have found that the Greenland glaciers in the Arctic Circle are likely to disappear faster than expected. Dr. Alexander Robinson of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Research (PIK) in Germany recently published results from realistic glacier model experiments that show that even a 1.6-degree increase in global average temperature would be enough to cause the Greenland glaciers to retreat. “If global warming continues for a long time and the glaciers continue to melt, they may not return to their original state thousands of years from now, even when global temperatures return to pre-industrial conditions,” Dr. Robinson said. In 2021, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that Arctic sea ice is shrinking rapidly, with summer Arctic sea ice extent now more than 40% lower than in the 1980s. The loss of Arctic sea ice is not only contributing to sea level rise, but also to drastic changes in polar ecosystems.
Second, natural disasters will intensify. Natural disasters are unavoidable natural phenomena such as heavy rains, floods, droughts, and heat waves. As the climate warms, glaciers will melt and sea levels will rise, as shown in the previous example, and as the temperature of the ocean rises, the energy of the ocean will be transferred to storms (hurricanes and cyclones), which will become more powerful. In 2005, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) reported that “since the 1970s, the persistence and intensity of major storms in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans has increased by nearly 50 percent.” This trend has intensified in the 2020s, with a growing number of studies showing that climate change is increasing the frequency of superstorms. Typhoons are categorized into five levels, with Category 4 and above being called super typhoons. These are typhoons with winds of 65 meters per second or more and heavy rainfall of more than 1,000 millimeters per day. The most recent super typhoon to hit South Korea was Volaven, which is known to have caused significant damage. When it made landfall on the Korean peninsula, it was so massive that people said it was like a predator eating the peninsula. These superstorms are also becoming more frequent as sea surface temperatures change.
The third change is desertification. While climate warming is increasing precipitation across the planet, it is also changing precipitation patterns, creating large regional differences in precipitation. Higher temperatures increase the amount of water vapor that evaporates from the surface of the earth, causing land to dry out and desertification to occur. If desertification continues at this rate, it will change the environment for plants to survive, making it harder for them to grow, making it harder for people to eat, and causing more forest fires.
Fourth, changes in the natural environment cause disturbances in the ecosystem. As temperatures rise, we can see the habitats of organisms shifting to higher elevations and polar regions. This is because they’re looking for existing temperatures where they can live. One of the organisms most affected by this change in temperature is coral reefs. Coral reefs are so sensitive that a temperature increase of just 1 to 3 degrees Celsius in seawater can cause coral bleaching, a process that kills them. At this rate of warming, coral reefs could become extinct in the next 20 to 40 years. In addition to this, it is estimated that between 20 and 30 percent of plants and animals are at risk of extinction with an average global temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, and between 40 and 70 percent of plants and animals are at risk of extinction if we exceed that. Since ecosystems have a food chain structure in which one species feeds on another, the entire ecosystem is disturbed.
There are many other cascading effects of global change. The water has already been spilled, and it is impossible to restore the average global temperature to what it was 100 years ago. Of course, climate warming has created many problems for the planet, but there are also good examples of how it can be used to our advantage. One such example can be found in the troubled Greenland glaciers. Greenland is 10 times the size of the Korean peninsula. Already, 97% of the ice on the surface has melted, and NASA reports that Greenland will be completely ice-free by next summer. But as the ice melts, Greenland is paradoxically turning into a treasure trove of resources. It has been reaffirmed that there are resources of all kinds. The proven reserves of natural gas and oil alone are the 19th largest in the world. And it’s not just Greenland that is emerging, but the entire Arctic Ocean. The Korean Peninsula is also showing promise in adapting to climate change. Currently, the Korean Peninsula is becoming increasingly subtropical due to rising temperatures, with agriculture and fisheries being the most affected sectors. As the average temperature on the peninsula has risen, pollock, a cold-water fish, has migrated northward to the Russian coast, and changes to the marine ecosystem are also occurring, with fish catches declining due to changing water temperatures. It is also known that for every 1℃ increase in temperature, crop yields decrease by about 10%, and new pests are causing increasing damage to crops. At this rate, South Korea’s agricultural production capacity will likely not be able to meet domestic demand. In response, the government and research institutions are increasing their investment in agricultural research and development (R&D). In particular, they are focusing on developing rice varieties that can adapt to high temperatures and new varieties that are resistant to high temperatures and humidity, and research on plant factory technology is also accelerating. Plant factories are technologies that can automatically adjust the growing environment to shorten the cultivation period and improve productivity by 3 to 6 times compared to the existing ones, and have recently been commercialized in Korea. Maintaining existing agricultural production is the first step in adapting to climate change. Furthermore, measures are being taken to utilize climate change on the Korean Peninsula as a new opportunity. Expanding the cultivation of subtropical crops is a prime example, and the Warming Response Agriculture Research Center on Jeju Island is currently researching five subtropical fruit trees, including mango, golden kiwi, avocado, passion fruit, and dragon fruit, and 10 subtropical vegetables, including artichoke, bitter cucumber, and rhubarb. Some varieties have already been distributed to farmers, and efforts are being made to develop domestic varieties, such as the bluefin tuna, to address royalty issues.
Finally, preventing further climate rise is the most important thing for the planet. The way to stop climate rise is to reduce CO2 emissions. This means reducing energy consumption, and reducing the amount of energy used by people around the world is both politically and psychologically challenging. In the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” Al Gore, the main character, says at the end, “Are you ready to change the way you live? The climate crisis can be solved.” If individuals took public transportation, used eco-friendly products, and recycled, CO2 emissions would be significantly reduced. The climate crisis can be solved by changing the way we live. At the policy level, we need to develop alternative energy sources. Alternative energy sources include wind, hydropower, solar, geothermal, and hydrogen, which has been gaining traction recently. With these individual and policy efforts, we can stop climate warming from getting worse.
