What Climate Change Could Change (Almost Everything)

No Ecosystem on Earth Is Safe From Climate Change; If carbon emissions continue to grow, anyone who works with the land could face ‘unprecedented challenges.’

Robinson Meyer, August 30, 2018 (The Atlantic)

“If climate change continues unabated, nearly every ecosystem on the planet would alter dramatically, to the point of becoming an entirely new biome, according to a new paper endorsed by 42 scientists from around the world…[T] he changes of the next 200 years could equal—and may likely exceed—those seen over the 10,000 years that ended the last Ice Age. If humanity does not stop emitting greenhouse-gas emissions, the character of the land could metamorphose: Oak forest could become grassland. Evergreen woods could turn deciduous. And, of course, beaches would sink into the sea…

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[By examining the ‘paleoecological’ record, the scientists found that between] the peak of the last Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, and 1800 A.D., the world warmed by between 4 and 7 degrees Celsius…[T]hat ancient warming—which was caused by minute shifts in the Earth’s orbital path—raised global sea levels by almost 400 feet…[and] it could happen again, within the lifetime of babies born today: Earth could experience 4 to 5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100 if humanity does not slow the emission of heat-trapping gases…” click here for more

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