TROPICAL RAINFORESTS: Disappearing Opportunities

A "tippy" climate - 1°F Warming per year at the Poles?

While a 3.6-5.4°F (2-3°C) increase in global temperature does not sound like much, such an increase would have profound effects on sea levels, largely because most of the temperature increase would occur at the poles. While equatorial temperatures would change little, if at all, Arctic and Antarctic temperatures could rise steeply. In the past, the magnitude and rate of the increase in temperature change at the poles was staggering: ice cores from Greenland suggest that 12,500 years ago temperatures increased 59°F (33°C) in 50 years.


Continued: Extinction

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