Title | Quick Explanation | Learn more at climate.mit.edu |
---|---|---|
Wildfires | Wildfires are becoming more frequent and sever as a result of climate change, as forest in arid parts of the world become hotter and drier. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/wildfires |
Urban Heat Islands | The urban heat island effect is a phenomenon whereby cities experience higher air temperatures than the surrounding countryside, making them more vulnerable to a warming Earth | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/urban-heat-islands |
The Paris Agreement | The Paris Climate Agreement is a treaty that brings all the world's peoples into a common effort to combat climate change. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/paris-agreement |
The National Climate Assessment | The National Climate Assessment is a U.S. government report to inform decision-making related to the impacts of climate change in the United States. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/national-climate-assessment |
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a United Nations body widely considered the world's top authority on climate science. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/intergovernmental-panel-climate-change |
Soil-Based Carbon Sequestration | Soil-based carbon sequestration is a way to remove CO2 from the air and store it somewhere it can't easily escape: in soils, which store carbon in the form of broken-down plant matter | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/soil-based-carbon-sequestration |
Sea Level Rise | Sea level around the world are rising because of climate change as warming ocean waters and melting ice cause the oceans to encroach on the world's coasts | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/sea-level-rise |
Renewable Energy | Renewable energy is energy from sources, like wind, solar, and hydropower, that we cannot run out of. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/renewable-energy |
Radiative Forcing | Radiative forcing is what happens when the amount of energy that enters the Earth's atmosphere is different from the amount of energy that leaves it. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/radiative-forcing |
Phytoplankton | By taking up carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air, phytoplankton play a large role in the natural carbon cycle, helping to regulate the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and keep the Earth’s climate in balance. | https://climate.mit.edu/explainers/phytoplankton |