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The scientific community has been investigating the causes of climate change for decades. After thousands of studies, the scientific consensus is that it is "unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land since pre-industrial times."
Climate change causes sea ice to melt, transforming the Arctic from an icy desert into an open ocean. Polar bears and seals may lose their habitats, phytoplankton growth may increase and fuel the Arctic food web , which may lead to higher carbon burial rates and possibly decrease the amount of CO 2 in the atmosphere.
A related phenomenon driven by climate change is woody plant encroachment, affecting up to 500 million hectares globally. [218] Climate change has contributed to the expansion of drier climate zones, such as the expansion of deserts in the subtropics. [219] The size and speed of global warming is making abrupt changes in ecosystems more likely ...
Positive climate change feedbacks amplify changes in the climate system, and can lead to destabilizing effects for the climate. [2] An increase in temperature from greenhouse gases leading to increased water vapor (which is itself a greenhouse gas) causing further warming is a positive feedback, but not a runaway effect, on Earth. [13]
As the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes clear, while the planet has so far seen an average temperature rise of 1.2 degrees Celsius and will ...
Children often have no voice in terms of global responses to climate change. [5] People living in low-income countries experience a higher burden of disease and are less capable of coping with climate change-related threats. [7] Nearly every child in the world is at risk from climate change and pollution, while almost half are at extreme risk. [8]
Some climate change effects: wildfire caused by heat and dryness, bleached coral caused by ocean acidification and heating, environmental migration caused by desertification, and coastal flooding caused by storms and sea level rise. Effects of climate change are well documented and growing for Earth's natural environment and human societies. Changes to the climate system include an overall ...
Deforestation is a primary contributor to climate change, [1] [2] and climate change affects the health of forests. [3] Land use change , especially in the form of deforestation, is the second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions from human activities, after the burning of fossil fuels .