Evidence of our warming climate unfolds every day from locations across the globe. Severe storms, flooding rains, prolonged droughts, destructive winds and, of course, warming seas, grab the headlines. This environmental disaster, the product of our Industrial Revolution, will only get worse over the coming decades.
Yet, for those of us interested in the natural sciences, it is a fascinating process to observe. While the climate's effects on weather patterns are most obvious, it also alters natural food sources, migration patterns, water resources and vegetation cycles, among less evident factors. Indeed, it's what we don't yet understand that is the most worrisome aspect of global warming.
The prospect that humans will unite to reverse climate change seems unlikely, especially on this politically fractured planet. Whether we can adapt and survive as a species is also in question. No doubt, many species will outlast our own.
