China’s pollution may be holding back global warming somewhat, but sea levels are still rising, due to glacier melt, and climate change could put an end to small island nations such as Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives. They could become deterritorialized states–countries in name only, with their citizens are scattered far and wide.
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How deep is the ocean’s capacity to buffer against climate change? Right now our oceans absorb almost one-third of all our greenhouse gas emissions. During the past three decades, increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide have largely been matched by corresponding increases in dissolved carbon dioxide in the seawater, but climatologists don’t know if the ocean can continue mopping up human-produced carbon at the same rate. Warmer water can’t hold as much carbon dioxide, so the ocean’s carbon capacity is decreasing as it warms.
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Scientists have been worried for years that the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone will explode, but there’s a more immediate concern about the health of that beautiful national park: Fire. Climate is changing fire patterns in the west in a way that could increase the frequency of large fires in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to a point that sparks dramatic shifts in the vegetation there.
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As if any further proof was needed that climate change is under way, as North America broils in brutal heat, South America is experiencing one of its coldest winters on record.
When researchers studied core sediments from a shallow boreal lake, they found that storm activity has increased substantially over the past 150 years. This rise in storm frequency appears to be linked to solar activity, but also may be linked to higher global temperatures resulting from increased amounts of greenhouse gases.
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