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Climate change is already upon us, experts say, and we are already feeling its adverse effects in the form of extreme weather events: scorching temperatures leading to droughts, torrential rains causing widespread flooding, and record freezes bringing feet of snow.

But what of the less obvious effects of global warming?

It seems that climate change is impacting life across the whole planet in the most unexpected ways: a new study suggests that the increasing acidification of ocean waters caused by rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels could rob sharks of their ability to sense the smell of food.
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Changes in coastal ocean temperatures have been much more extreme over the past 10 years than expected. This could especially affect California, which is a major breadbasket for the rest of the United States.

Researchers have also found that temperature determines where key soil microbes can thrive– microbes that are critical to forming topsoil crusts in arid lands. Scientists predict that in as little as 50 years, global warming may push some of these microbes out of their present stronghold in US deserts, with unknown consequences to soil fertility and erosion.
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The Pew Oceans Commission, made up of 18 scientists, says the U.S. has a “frontier mentality” when it comes to our oceans, which includes ignorance, neglect and short-term planning (sounds like the way the government handles everything else as well). We know from Linda Howe’s recent Dreamland report that big fish are being fished to extinction, all over the world, but this is just one of the problems.
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