News
Ocean animals face a mass extinction from climate change
Rising temperatures and dwindling oxygen levels could cause half of all marine species to vanish in the next 300 years, a new study finds. But if humanity can still avoid a mass extinction event by keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate: oceans
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
State of Play
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.