When we hear about polar ice caps melting, it sounds dangerous but also distant. The damage to our planet’s ecosystem caused by increasing levels of carbon dioxide is real, but we don’t see it.
It’s hard for people to take climate change seriously because it’s not immediately and directly affecting our lives, YET.
In order to give people a taste of what might happen when the consequences of global warming hit home, UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability presents an in depth analysis of what LA’s climate could look like, if global warming continues in the direction it is going.
With sea levels rising, and temperatures increasing as well, what will the 3.82 million residents of Los Angeles have to look forward to?
Even then scientists were aware of the green house effect created by CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere. Keeling tracked the increasing levels of CO2 for decades, but it didn’t take long for him to link the rising CO2 levels with the burning of fossil fuels. Although it was known that the burning of fossil fuels created CO2, it was widely believed that the ocean absorbed all of that excess carbon dioxide. Keeling was the first person to prove that CO2 was accumulating in the atmosphere, as it still is today.
In this video, Somerville further explains this research and his ideas for how to reduce the emissions causing climate change. If you want more information on climate change and ocean science, check out the “Perspectives on Ocean Science” series.