![]() ![]() ![]() You can imagine how this would affect the almost 40 percent of the US population that lives in a highly populated coastal area. And the pace is only increasing in recent years as glaciers melt faster and water temperatures increase, causing oceans to expand. Sea levels have been rising for the past century. ![]() And the people who depend on melting ice for water to support their farming and living needs are deeply affected. However, when more ice melts than is replaced, the glacier loses mass. In a world unaffected by climate change, glacier mass stays balanced, meaning the ice that evaporates in the summer is fully replaced by snowfall in the winter. People who rely on melting glacier water are facing shortages, and in many regions, the situation is only getting worse. The disappearance of glaciers is one of the clearest signs of climate change. Some research suggests that the Arctic could lose almost all of its summer ice cover by 2100, but others believe that it could melt completely much sooner than that – in just a few decades. The Arctic ice cap grows each winter when there’s less sunlight, and shrinks each summer when days are longer, reaching its lowest point of the year in September. Satellite images from space show that the area covered by sea ice in the Arctic is shrinking, and it’s continued a downward trend for the past 30 years. The result? More floods, more hurricanes, and more extreme precipitation events. Oceans evaporate more water as the air right near the surface gets warmer. Roughly 70 percent of the world is covered by oceans, so you can understand how hotter air over them could make a vast difference in the climate system. Air temperatures over oceans are increasing. Intense droughts can lead to destructive wildfires, failed crops, and low water supplies, many of which are deeply affecting southern areas of the United States and other parts of the world. It’s clear that weather stations on land show average air temperatures are rising, and as a result, the frequency and severity of droughts and heat waves are increasing. Air temperatures over land are increasing. Each indicator described below has been extensively studied over the past several decades, and was captured from many different data sets and technologies. So to help set the record straight, we’re going to focus on 10 major changes scientists have seen in our climate system. What other ways has our climate system changed in the last century? How do we really know our climate is changing permanently, rather than just going through a normal period of flux? Between opinions from climate deniers and misinformation campaigns from the fossil fuel industry, it can be a challenge to get the unobstructed facts. However, it’s the rate of temperature change that’s especially troubling to scientists temperatures have risen nearly twice as fast in the last 50 years alone. Let’s take a closer look: globally, average surface temperatures increased 1.1-1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6-0.9 degrees Celsius) between 19. The Earth has gone through many shifts in cooling and warming driven by natural factors like the sun’s energy or variations in its orbit, but the trend scientists have seen over the past 50 years is unmistakable. Few global trends have been as controversial as climate change and the Earth’s warming. ![]()
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