5.2.4 What are the impacts of climate change?
Climate change is already having many discernible impacts:
Melting Polar ice caps: The area of Arctic ice at the North Pole has shrunk by 10% in recent decades, and the thickness of the ice above the water has decreased by about 40%. On the other side of the world, parts of the ice sheet above the Antarctic continent have become unstable.
* Retreating glaciers: It is likely that 75% of the glaciers in the Swiss Alps will disappear by 2050.
Rising sea levels: Over the last century sea levels have risen by between 12 and 22 cm and are projected to rise even more rapidly in the future.
Extreme weather: In the last decade, there were three times more weather-related natural catastrophes in the world than in the 1960s, including heat waves, floods, droughts and forest fires. All these types of events have a big human and economic cost.
Nature under threat: Many animals and plants will not be able to cope with higher temperatures and changes to their natural habitats.
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