What are the consequences of rising carbon dioxide levels?
Researchers say Earth might warm two to five degrees Celsius [roughly three to nine degrees Fahrenheit] over the next century. A two-degree increase is like moving the climate bands 250 miles poleward in 100 years, or around 30 feet each day. Squirrels might be able to move at those kinds of rates, but an oak tree can’t. There have been reports that mountain glaciers are retreating. There are signs in Canada of tree diseases resulting from warm temperatures. There is some danger of peat bogs drying out and releasing methane to the atmosphere, thereby accelerating global warming. On the long-term scale, there is the possibility of destabilizing methane hydrates on the continental shelf, which will also accelerate global warming. So there is an array of effects. While the warming is global, the effects are local. With warming in California, for example, we’ll lose snow in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Here, it rains mostly in the wintertime, and the water is stored as snow. As it mel
