How Does Clımate Change Affect You?

Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner. Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves. ... The planet's long-term warming trend continues, with the global average temperature rising 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) in 2017, according to scientists at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York. In 2016, the temperature was 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) higher than the late 19th century average. NASA's analyzes include surface temperature measurements from 6,300 weather...