Higher levels are turning oceans more acidic, resulting in some shellfish (e.g., clams and crabs) dying or not developing (Spotts, 2009).
Global weather- and climate-related disasters rose from 743 between 1971 and 1980 to 3,496 between 2001 and 2010. Climate change will lead to an increase in big storms (like Hurricanes Harvey and Irma) that cause floods, landslides, and other natural disasters (World Meteorological Organization, 2014;
Prein et al., 2017).
In 2016, earth reached its highest temperature on record. Excessive heat in the United States claims more lives each year than floods, lightning, tornadoes, and hurricanes combined (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2014; Blunden and Arndt, 2017).
The world's largest ice sheets in Antarctica and western Greenland are melting by an average of 3 feet a year. The Arctic Ocean could be largely free of sea ice by the late 2030s, only two decades from now. The melting glaciers could contribute to sea levels rising 3 to 6 feet by 2100, flooding up to 70 percent of the populations in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana (Hauer et al., 2016; AMAP, 2017; Blunden and Arndt, 2017).
Some Alaskan native villages are facing disaster. Climate change has thinned the Arctic ice so much that it's become too dangerous to hunt whales, a traditional means of sustenance, or even to live in the state's coastal communities. As the ice melts, the towns are in "imminent danger" from erosion and being washed to sea during storms (Mooney, 2015).