Soil that remained at or below 0°C for at least two years is called permafrost. It contains a lot of frozen organic material that has accumulated over thousands of years from dead plants and animals. This also means that this frozen ground holds a large amount of carbon. …

Boreal forests are located in the cold climates of the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. They lie just south of the Arctic tundra, where tree growth is restricted by year-round freezing or near-freezing temperatures and a lack of rain. Known as “taiga” in Russia, boreal forests are characterized by…

The Amazon rainforest is the largest rainforest in the world. It stretches across nine countries in South America and is twice the size of India. The lush vegetation is a paradise for millions of species of plants, insects, birds and animals. As the name suggests, a rainforest is sustained by…

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is a current system in the Atlantic Ocean that brings warm water from the tropics to Europe. It is part of a broader network of global ocean circulation patterns that transports heat around the world. The illustration above shows that the AMOC consists of…

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is one of three regions making up Antarctica and is more than 4 km thick in places. The long-term stability of the WAIS is of particular concern because it’s a marine-based ice sheet. This means it sits upon bedrock that largely lies below sea…

The Greenland ice sheet is the second largest ice mass on earth. The melting of the Greenland ice sheet is accelerating and is currently raising global sea levels by about 0.7 mm per year. About half of the melting of the Greenland ice sheet occurs at the surface. The rest…

Coral reefs are one of the ecosystems most sensitive to global warming. In recent years, there have been a number of mass bleaching events in warm-water corals, primarily caused by prolonged high ocean temperatures. Under prolonged heat stress, the corals expel the tiny colorful algae that live in their tissues…

The short answer to both questions is: Yes! But let’s dive a little deeper and understand why global warming is a bad thing and how we know we humans caused it. How do we know that the climate change is caused by humans? Skeptics often claim that there have always been temperature fluctuations in the past and that the currently observed global…

What are tipping points? A tipping point in a complex system is a point where a small change makes a big difference and alters the state or fate of a system. For climate tipping points, this means that there are thresholds at which a tiny change can shift a system into a completely new…