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Amazon Rain Forest
The Amazon rainforest is a critical influence on South American climate and one of the world’s most important carbon banks. Covering almost as much land as the contiguous United States, the Amazon is home to 20 percent of the planet’s animal and plant species and stores the equivalent amount of carbon as a decade of global fossil fuel emissions in its trees. It plays a crucial role in the precipitation cycle of South America and pumps oxygen into the atmosphere, earning it the nickname, the “Lungs of the World.”
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Antarctica
Antarctica has always been a land of surprises, dating back to its discovery and confirmation as a continent in the first half of the 1800s. But the impacts global warming is bringing to the world’s largest continent are not welcome surprises.
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Arctic Circle: The Big Melt
The arctic is the hot-seat of global warming, with rapidly melting ice a threat to polar bears, native arctic culture, and to the majority of the world's population living in warmer climates. Temperatures have risen at twice the average rate for the rest of the globe, causing over 20 percent of the Arctic ice cap to melt during the last 30 years.
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Australia
The land down under is already being overwhelmed by global warming impacts. In 2006, Australia experienced its worst drought in a millennia. Severe wildfires have caused widespread damage to the land and the economy. And the natural icon of the country, the colorful Great Barrier Reef, has experienced the whitewashing effects of coral bleaching from rising ocean temperatures.
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China: Economic and Emissions Boom
China and the United States have similar stories when it comes to global warming. Both are large countries experiencing both drought and floods. Both are figuring out how coal can fit into a low-carbon future. And both countries are the largest emitters of global warming pollution in the world, with the U.S. having the historical burden of emissions and China the threat of years of increasing emissions if solutions aren't adopted in both countries.
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East Africa
Africa is arguably the most vulnerable continent to the impacts of global warming, despite being the least responsible for the pollution causing it. By the year 2080, East Africa’s temperature is predicted to rise 5.4 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit, one and a half times more than the projected average for the rest of the world. Droughts, flooding, famine, species extinction, and conflicts are all made worse by global warming in East Africa.
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Greenland
Greenland, the world’s largest island, is almost entirely covered by a massive ice sheet that is roughly the size of Mexico (700,000 square miles), is up to two miles thick, and contains nearly a tenth of the world’s fresh water supply. If this ice sheet were to melt completely, sea levels would rise by over 20 feet. Even a 3-foot increase in sea levels would threaten some 70 million people living in coastal zones around the world.
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Ireland - New!
Coming Soon!
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The Netherlands
For the Netherlands the threat from, and the solution to, global warming can be found in the sea. As a low-lying country, the Dutch are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise, floods, and storm surges. They have spent billions on a vast system of levees, dikes and flood gates. But they also see the solution to their problems in the ocean—they have the largest offshore wind farm development plan in the world. The iconic windmills that once helped to pump out water from floods are now updated for the new millenium to help reduce the pollution that is raising sea levels around the world.
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U.S. - Alaska
Over the past 50 years, Alaska has warmed by 4 to 7 degrees Fahrenheit, much more than anywhere in the lower 48 states. This dramatic temperature change is causing the landscape of Alaska to change faster than anywhere else in the United States, threatening infrastructure, wildlife, and Native Alaskan culture.
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U.S. - California
California is leading the charge for meaningful action on global warming here in the United States. It has passed some of the most ambitious global warming legislation in the country. It has increased energy efficiency while growing their economy. And it has done so because Californians see the threats of increased wildfires, decreased snowpack, and rising sea-levels as immediate and significant.
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U.S. - Florida
Florida is already feeling the burn of global warming. In the next century, Florida could experience an additional 7 degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature. In 2005, a record breaking hurricane season hosted 26 named Atlantic storms, four of which made landfall in Florida. Global warming is already increasing the intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic, increasing the risk of devastating impacts when a storm hits.
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U.S. - Midwest
The Midwest region of the United States has long been the source of agonizing weather events—floods, droughts, and crop failures; and of the eternal hope of the country, serving up grain and grit everyday. Global warming is already impacting the Midwest, bringing longer, more intense droughts in some areas while others get more precipitation than they can handle. But the Midwest offers hope for solving global warming through wind power, cellulosic ethanol and other home-grown solutions.
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U.S. - New England
Life and economic activity across New England is marked by the seasons – maple sugaring in the spring, trips to the beach in the summer, the riot of color of the fall foliage, and the swoosh of skis and skates in the winter. This familiar cycle is already changing in noticeable ways.
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U.S. - New Orleans
There is perhaps no better example of the potential for devastating global warming impact than the Gulf Coast and Hurricane Katrina. While scientists are clear that no one storm can be attributed to global warming, they have unearthed a trend towards larger, more intense storms as oceans around the world warm. After Katrina, the response from the American public was to help New Orleans any way we can. In order to protect the Gulf Coast over the long term, America should adopt policies that cut global warming pollution to reduce warming of the oceans.
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