Climate Cast at the fair: Year in review
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MPR News' Kerri Miller is joined by MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner and John Abraham to look back at a year of climate news and answer your questions about climate change and its impact.
• How would rising ocean levels affect the Great Lakes?
Not so much direct impact, but the changes to precipitation rates, ice coverage and evaporation could have a real effect.
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• A new vortex?
A wavy jet stream and the larger Siberian snow pack cause a higher chance of a polar vortex.
• Is rising sea level a myth?
Greenland and Antarctica are melting, and recent surveys have indicated that the melting is gaining speed. The conservative estimates predict a 3-foot rise in ocean levels, and according to Abraham more than 150 million people live on land within 3 feet of ocean level.
• Why is climate change different from other pollution problems?
With other pollution problems, we can see the results of our actions directly; when emissions change, we can directly observe reductions in smoggy days. Climate changes do not show easily visible results in a time frame we might notice. Climate changes are akin to a train: slow to start, carries lots of inertia, and very slow to stop once it gets going.
• What is ocean acidification?
Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves into the oceans, producing carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the ocean. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans become. That makes it hard for shell-producing animals to make their shells. Since those creatures make up a large part of the base of the food chain, stress on those populations could dramatically affect other animals up the food chain.
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