Social and Political Dimensions of Climate Change in Northern Europe

 

The major concerns about the impact of climate change in Northern Europe are extreme heat events, increased coastal and river floods and significant reduction in water availability. There will be more forest fires and heat wave related deaths. There will also be billions of dollars lost in river floods, droughts and forest fires.

Europe for the most part is an example for the world in regards to instituting sound climate change policies. Such as the creating of European climate change program whose goal is to help identify the most environmentally effective and most cost-effective policies and measures that can be taken at European level to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Many countries are using renewable or clean energy too such as Sweden which is limiting there coal use, Finland who is using wind energy, Denmark who is planning to cut all fossil fuel use by 2050 and Austria which is harnessing energy from biomass.

 http://www.eea.europa.eu/soer-2015/europe/climate-change-impacts-and-adaptation

 http://www.activesustainability.com/top-5-countries-in-renewable-energy

The Geological History of Northern Europe

Precambrian -  There was crust formation and deformation during the Archean and Proterozoic periods.
Early Paleozoic - Was a time of tectonic stability.
Caledonian Orogeny - Was a time of major continental collision which lead to major mountain Building and sedimentation this was mostly across  Ireland, Wales, northern England, Scotland and Norway.
Variscan Orogeny - continental collision between Europe and Gondwana. It caused rock structure deformation across southernmost Ireland and England. 
Permian - Pangaea came into existence during this time. Europe was tectonically stable except for Norway.

The Pleistocene Epoch was 1.8 million years ago and is the most resent ice age where the continents moved to there current positions. During this time period Northern Europe was covered in ice sheets. They began to reside after the ice age.

http://www.donsmaps.com/icemaps.html

http://academic.emporia.edu/aberjame/struc_geo/euro_north/euro1.htm

http://www.livescience.com/40311-pleistocene-epoch.html

Climate of Northern Europe

The Gulf Stream tends to Keep Northern Europe warmer than other locations with similar latitudes. Winters are also longer and summers are cooler with cold heavy snowfall. Between winter and early spring average rain fall across Europe is 20 to 60 inches. There is significant snowfall in cold winters and cool summers in the northern Mountain Ranges.

http://www.europe-trips.eu/European-climate-weather-conditions.html

http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/euweather.htm