We all seem to have that one relative who (loudly) denies climate change at the dinner table — the one who points to snow on the ground in November to disprove global warming, calls climate change an international hoax, or insists climate change is part of “the natural planetary cycles.”

Sigh.

It may seem futile to argue with these family members — you could say anything to them, read them every landmark climate report backed by scientists, and they still won’t change their minds.

But engaging in this sort of respectful discourse with nay-saying climate deniers — even if your uncle blindly disputes every point you make — is a step in the right direction. Our job as environmental activists (or even just someone who cares about our collective future) is to squelch anti-science rhetoric as we encounter it. To not do so could mean backpedaling on so much of the progress that scientific research has advanced.

… Or maybe you’re just in the mood to argue. Whatever inspires you to myth-bust this holiday season, here are six ways to respond to your family’s climate-denying comments. In the most respectful, loving way, of course:

1. Uncle Frank says, “Climate change is natural and normal — we’ve seen fluctuations throughout history.”

The Earth has been through a lot in the last 4.5 billion years. And yes, high levels of carbon dioxide have been released naturally in the Earth’s history. Scientists believe that mass extinctions millions of years ago may be attributed to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide, long before humans were around to burn ridiculous amounts of fossil fuels.

What we’re experiencing with climate change today, however, is far different than any warming or cooling humanity has seen — in rate and in scale. Our present climate change is occurring at an unprecedented rate.

That some of the world’s mass extinctions may have been tied to CO2 shouldn’t be a relief, though; it should be a wakeup call. Unlike in the past, we are the ones doing the damage (through the out-of-control burning of fossil fuels), not the Earth.

The good news is it’s entirely within our control to phase out fossil fuels and avoid the most devastating impacts of unchecked climate change. We don’t have to be dinosaurs, and we definitely should stop burning them.

2. When your cousin Wilma says, “Scientists can’t even agree that climate change is happening.”

Well, actually… 97 percent of scientists agree that climate change is happening and that humans are the primary cause.

To put this into perspective, in 2020, NASA climate scientist Kate Marvel stated that we are more sure that humans are causing climate change than we are that smoking causes cancer.

Perhaps you’re thinking of indecisive politicians, many of whom are backed by the fossil fuel industry. Maybe that’s why leaders are still dragging their feet when it comes to climate action — or worse, vocally denying its existence in the face of rigorous scientific report, after report, after report.

The truth is politicians have known about human-made climate change since the 1960s and fossil fuel companies have known about it since the 1950s. But leaders in the highest-emitting countries are doing next to nothing to slow climate change, let alone stop it.

3. Grandpa says, “It’s so cold outside. Sure could use some of that global warming.”

Weather and climate are two different things. Weather fluctuates from day to day, while climate is defined by long-term trends and weather averages.

So, just because it’s cold right now doesn’t mean global warming isn’t happening. The last ten years have been the warmest ten years on record, and that’s counting the bitter polar vortexes that have driven Arctic air down across North America during that period. It’s only getting worse! NOAA announced this January that the summer of 2024 was the hottest summer on record and that this August was the third warmest summer in the US in the 131 year record. 

The Earth is on track to warm a predicted 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next five years, but winter’s not going to disappear altogether in many parts of the world. Record low temperatures will just become rarer.

And while you might not lose your winter altogether, unchecked climate change will bring other major weather shifts, in the form of extreme weather events like drought, wildfire, and hurricanes that will become more frequent and more intense in our warming world.

So, bundle up and brace yourself for the extreme weather climate change brings — including the intense cold.

4. Your mom says, “Plants and animals will adapt to the changes.” (Mom, stop embarrassing me!)

Scientists believe that current climate change is occurring too rapidly to allow for species to adapt. And this is about more than the pictures of starving polar bears you see on Facebook (sorry, Mom).

Climate change threatens 35% of animals and plants with extinction in the wild by 2050. At this point, with climate change not even at its fullest force, an estimated one million species are at risk of extinction. In 2023, estimates showed that two dozen species go extinct every day.

This is because climate change is compounding the effects of other already-existing detrimental human activities like overfishing and deforestation.

A U.N. report published in 2019 ranked the top five direct drivers of the disappearance of species. Climate change was third, behind changes in land and sea use and overexploitation of organisms (all human-caused).Currently, species are going extinct at 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate of extinction. That means we could lose 35 percent of the total species found on Earth by mid-century. Can you pass the cranberry sauce?

5. Uncle Frank is back at it: “Climate change is a good thing.“

Hold my eggnog.

For many reasons — economic, environmental, physiological — climate change will have a net negative impact on the world. Research even shows we’ve significantly underestimated the severity of climate change related destruction and the subsequent financial.

 In our warming world, global economic output is expected to decrease by up to 85 percent by 2100 under the 2 degree celsius climate change scenario. In estimates from 2021, the United States economy stands to lose seven percent of potential output, with poorer nations like the Philippines and Thailand predicted to see economic growth drop by 20 percent by 2050.

But enough with the economic hypotheticals. We’re already seeing how dangerous climate change is to plants and animals as well as humans.

Higher temperatures have increased heat-related deaths. Nearly 62,000 heat-related deaths were recorded in Europe during the summer of 2022. Higher temperatures also worsen air quality, and in 2021, higher temperatures were connected to increases in some violent crimes.

But what’s just as scary are the statistics on natural disasters: Hurricanes are reaching new extremes — with the proportion of categories 4 and 5 expected to increase because of climate change. Wildfires, too, are claiming larger burn areas and increasing in intensity.

What’s so great about that?

6. Your stepdad says, “It won’t affect me or anyone I know.”

Climate impacts are already here and now, and they will only get worse if we continue to do nothing. Climate change affects individuals disproportionately, hurting the poorest and most vulnerable communities worse than others, so you may just be feeling a buffer from your comparative privilege.

Environmental justice recognizes that climate change isn’t just a physical problem — it’s an ethical one, too. The individuals and communities who will be most affected by climate change are the ones contributing the least to it.

But this is also a generational issue — you may not have to bear the brunt of our collective inaction on climate change, but let’s try to have some empathy for future generations (even if you don’t understand TikTok or selfies).

Your great grandchildren — who are currently on track to inherit a world 2.7 degrees warmer than yours and feel its effects at every stage of their life — will have to clean up the mess your generation made in their fight for survival. They’ll grow up in a world with more air pollution, more vector-borne diseases, and more extreme weather events to deal with.

The future of humanity is on the line

In conclusion, you can’t choose your family, but you can try to change their mindsets on climate change. Some of these arguments may stick; some may go in one ear and out the other.

These conversations aren’t easy, but we should try to engage in them when we can. After all, the future of humanity is on the line.

Perhaps if you convince them, your newly informed, ex-climate-denying relatives will even take action for Earth Day in 2025. That action — whether it’s participating in a cleanup, having a plant-based meal, or attending a teach-in — can help put us on a course to a greener, more sustainable future.

And if that happens, you’ll definitely have something interesting to talk about next holiday.

This blog was originally published on November 25, 2019 and updated on December 25, 2025.

The post 6 Arguments to Refute Your Climate-Denying Relatives This Holiday appeared first on Earth Day.

It’s Halloween, which means costumes, candy, and scary movies. Fear turns to fun on October 31 because Halloween lets us seek scary thrills that can’t hurt us. When we feel like threats are closing in on us and things are getting truly scary, we just turn off the TV and turn on the lights. But there is one terror that we can’t escape, no matter the time of year.

We’re talking about climate change! Here are five of the scariest, most bone-chilling facts about climate change to get you in the mood for terror this season (and hopefully also scare you and your fellow trick-or-treaters into action to address it).

1. Within the next 2 decades, global temperatures are likely to reach 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

In its highly-anticipated Sixth Report in 2021, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that a certain amount of global warming is locked in and is irreversible. They reported that from 2011–2020, the global temperature had already reached 1.1 degrees Celsius above 1850-1900 levels. 

In 2024, global temperatures rose above 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels for the first time, and if this trend persists, we will have failed to reach our climate goals established under the Paris Agreement. As climate change becomes more severe, it is predicted to increase the frequency of “fire weather”, kill 70-90% of coral reefs at 1.5 degrees Celsius warming, and raise our sea levels globally by .3 meters above 2000s level.

Scientists estimate that we are on track to reach the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold by 2030 and reach the “tipping point” for climate change. Although the 1.5 degree threshold is considered by the signatories of the Paris Agreement as an acceptable level of global warming, every “extra bit of warming increases the severity of many weather extremes, ice melt and sea-level rise.” Yet, little has changed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It’s like the movie Don’t Look Up; we know what’s happening but we aren’t doing enough to change the outcome.

In 2019, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels and industry reached a high of 36.44 billion metric tons. In 2020, emissions from fossil fuels and industry fell by 5.8 percent due to COVID-19 and the resulting economic crisis. Despite that year’s reverse trend, however, 2022 emissions were back up to 36.8 billion metric tons. In the latest estimates from 2024, fossil fuel and industry emissions reached a new record high of 37.41 billion metric tons of CO2.

Four years later, Professor Forster’s eerie words still hold true.

2. The last 7 years have been the warmest on record

In 2023, NASA announced that the summer of 2023 was the hottest summer on record globally, surpassing the intense heat experienced in 2016. One year later, 2024 is confirmed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as the hottest year on record. 

And not only is food security severely at risk because of climate change, but our human security is as well. With temperatures rising due to climate change comes the risk of heat stress, the leading cause of weather-related deaths. 

As we enter the spooky season, the Washington Post reports that it will be an unseasonably hot one in the US. As a marine heatwave amplified by long-term global warming sweeps across the US, we are likely to experience temperatures above seasonal averages, with the Ohio Valley, Appalachians and Northeast predicted to experience 10 to 20 degree deviations.

 “Whether one year is a record or not is not really that important — the important things are long-term trends,” said Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Director Gavin Schmidt. The current long-term trend is that each year is getting hotter and hotter. 

Are you scared for our future, yet? Well get ready, because it’s going to get even scarier.

3. Our extinction rate is currently estimated to be 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate.

Imagine dressing up as a frog for Halloween and having to explain to younger generations what a frog was and why it’s gone. Currently it is estimated that  41%  of all amphibians species are at risk of extinction due to climate change — so this could be a reality if we don’t act soon.

Extinction is a natural phenomenon, claiming about five species per year. But some experts suggest we’re in the midst of the sixth mass extinction — one that is caused mostly by human activity.

According to a 2023 report, 48% of species are declining and on their way to extinction. It also revealed that the 33% of species listed as non-threatened by the IUCN Red-List are actually decreasing. By mid-century, over one third of the total species found on Earth are predicted to disappear because our extinction rate is currently 1,000 to 10,000 times the natural rate. In 2024, 21 species were declared extinct by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which tragically included the beloved Bachman’s Warbler.

Allowing this to continue is “a crime equivalent to tossing books from the Library of Alexandria thoughtlessly into a fire, erasing the shared inheritance of all mankind,” according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Science in a review from 2009.

Species diversity is crucial for ecosystem resilience, and without it, ecological communities will not have the strength to withstand change — especially not the change we’re throwing at them.

4. Climate change is already happening, and it’s detrimental to human life, too

The impacts to human health are much scarier than any child-eating clown movie.

Rising temperatures — coupled with cities that lack the capacity to minimize the accumulation and generation of urban heat and the increasing population of elderly — have increased heat-related deaths, according to an article published in 2024 by the World Health Organization.

A 2018 report concluded that the lack of adaptive capacities and effort toward reducing emissions threatens human lives and the national health systems people rely on, by pushing services to their limit and disrupting core infrastructure. Vulnerable communities are already being hit first and worst.

But hyperthermia is not the only risk climate change brings to human life. Pollution worsens air quality, and as of 2021, has been reported to be responsible for 1 in 8 deaths worldwide. This makes air pollution the second leading risk factor for death worldwide. 

A warming world also increases the intensity of natural disasters.

According to NASA, extreme wildfire activity has more than doubled worldwide.  This year, California saw one of the most destructive wildfires in US history in terms of loss of life, structural damages, and acres lost. In 2024, an intense wildfire in Chile killed 136 people, making it the deadliest disaster in the country since the 2010 earthquake and tsunami. Not only are the fires themselves deadly, but the smoke they produce is as well. As of this year, smoke from wildfires in Canada and the American West are predicted to cause more than 40,000 premature deaths per year. This is more than all the fatalities from car crashes in 2024. 

Hurricanes are reaching new extremes, too. According to scientists, 84% of Atlantic hurricanes between 2018 and 2023 were, on average, 18 mph stronger because of climate change. It has become immensely more difficult to escape these storms unscathed, and it will only get harder in the future.

Have you noticed that the Halloween season doesn’t feel the same either? If we can’t wear a full costume without sweating then something is wrong, right?

That’s because climate change is shifting the seasons. Over the past five decades, the vegetation season has become lengthened by an average of one month. This means that spring arrives earlier, while fall is delayed. This not only affects Halloween, but it might affect your Christmas plans too! Because of this change in seasons, many popular ski destinations around the world are forced to make their own artificial snow to stay open.

This change in season not only makes dressing up in a full-body werewolf costume uncomfortable but also disrupts the natural interactions between species, their habitats, and their migration patterns. 

BOO!

5. Many leaders still aren’t taking it seriously.

The world has been aware of climate change at least since the IPCC formed in 1988. Scientists and the public rallied around environmental policy, but many global governments had a different idea.

They were going to ignore it.

Countries contributing the most to global emissions have the best chance of curbing climate change, but leaders are doing little to address it.

Although it has been seven years since the Paris Agreement entered into force, none of the world’s major economies are on track to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

To outline steps to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to climate change, parties submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) every five years. February 10 was the deadline to submit updated NDCs, however, some countries failed to submit theirs, including many of the world’s major polluters. Although the US submitted their NDCs, they have since withdrawn from the Paris Climate agreement. Climate literacy is among the climate goals that have missed the mark. Climate literacy (as supported by an integrated K-12 curricula) is needed to prepare youth with an understanding of the climate crisis and skills to create solutions, yet not one country has thoroughly addressed it within its NDC.

Everyone may die at the end of horror movies, but we don’t have to.

We’re not in a Hollywood studio, helplessly in the hands of sadistic screenwriters. We can actively choose to change the ending of our story — and for that we should feel hopeful.

In 2019, younger generations took matters into their own hands and started striking for the climate. They skipped school completely to plead for an end to inaction toward climate change and demanding world leaders to undertake environmental reforms. A 2021 study revealed that 83% of people aged 16-25 feel that we have failed to take care of our planet and concluded that it is vital for governments to take “urgent” action against climate change. In June of this year, UNICEF described this eco-anxiety as “an emergent mental health problem.”

The next UN Conference of Parties (COP30) will be held this November. In this international meeting of heads of state and governments and stakeholders, countries will have an opportunity to heighten their ambition on climate change. 

After decades of inaction on climate change, we don’t have any more time to spare before it’s too late. Join the movement and add your voice to this urgent call for change. You can sign the Global Plastics Treaty petition, and spread the word to your friends! Or, you can donate to our Canopy Project, which organizes tree plantings all over the world, and take the effort not to buy clothes that promote Fast Fashion.

This Halloween we must face our fears. The human-made monster that is climate change won’t go anywhere if you just close your eyes or turn off the TV. Action and advocacy are the only way to flip the script — and not wind up like your favorite victim at the end of the horror film.

The post 5 Climate Change Facts to Scare You Into Action This Halloween appeared first on Earth Day.

As a land with rich ecosystems and diverse species, Mexico has a rich environmental future to match.

Since the start of a new government administration in December 2018, Mexico’s environmental education has undergone many changes. Educación Ambiental México, a network of 15 environmental NGOs including EarthxMexico, Telar Social and Fundación EDUCA, is designing and implementing these changes across Mexican school systems.

Earlier this year, the Mexican government amended its constitution to include an understanding of and respect for the natural world as a basic requirement of education.

Presently, Educación Ambiental México is working with Mexico’s Ministry of Education and Ministry of Environment to create a new environmental education law. This law would make both environmental education and education for sustainable development obligatory throughout schools in the whole country.

Looking forward, Educación Ambiental México is ensuring curriculums and school books reflect this law. According to Tiahoga Ruge, regional director of Earth Day Network Mexico, environmental education in Mexico has historically been overlooked, only mentioned in a superficial way or diluted within other subjects.

“It is very important to approach environmental education in a much deeper way, so the children really understand what climate change is and what biodiversity is,” she said.

By incorporating environmental education into classrooms, the subject will become a significant part of other courses such as chemistry, physics, biology and history. Educación Ambiental México plans to tie environmental education into history books through lessons on the environmental history of Mexico and of the world.

The organization hopes to have concrete results by April 22, 2020. As this day in April coincides with the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the date represents an important milestone for international climate action. The Ministry of Education in Mexico will also work with all schools in the country to hold a celebration on this day.

Environmental education is nothing new for Mexico; over the past 50 years, much work has been done to develop this. Nowadays, most universities in Mexico have a sustainability component in their curriculum. Today’s efforts in environmental education are significant because they revive and update the activism that came before, including developments from the recent United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014).

“I think we are getting to a stage of maturity and understanding that we need to change the paradigm,” Ruge said. “Environmental education is the basics. If we have the right to education, we can change many things.”

Ruge believes that this initiative will establish Mexico as a leader for environmental change in Latin America and set an example for other countries to follow. This will be a very important topic at the 25th United Nations Climate Change conference in Chile, where Educación Ambiental México will present it at a panel on December 6. There, they will invite the other countries that have signed the Paris Agreement — the U.N.’s international climate change agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions — to follow the example of mandatory environmental education.

By releasing a statement of support for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and joining the global movement of environmental action, Educación Ambiental México is taking large steps toward creating a healthy planet for all. Earth Day Network congratulates its friends in Mexico for their big-picture goals and concrete actions to achieve them. As we approach Earth Day in April 2020, now is the time to mobilize and set similar goals for climate action.

Photo credit for photo at top: Jeff Troth.

The post Mexico’s environmental education initiative changes climate discussion appeared first on Earth Day.

As we recently reported, climate change is coming for autumn, making falls shorter and less colorful. Unfortunately, a new report warns that autumn isn’t the only season at risk. In North America, dreams of a winter wonderland are also under threat.

Over the last century, northern U.S. and eastern Canada have been losing cold, snowy and icy conditions over the winter, according to a study published in the journal Ecological Applications. And a frost-free winter can hurt everything from tourism to ecosystems to human health.

Though we typically look at climate change through the lens of longer summers, shorter autumns and earlier springs, we often overlook the big impacts a warming world has on winter, said Alexandra Contosta, lead author of the study.

“Some of the biggest changes that we may see, especially in our parts of the world, with regards to climate, may actually be during the winter,” Contosta, a research assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire, told Earth Day Network.

For the study, Contosta and her team analyzed 100 years of weather data across northeastern North America, roughly from Minnesota to north of Maine. What they found doesn’t bode well for what we consider a traditional North American winter.

In general, the researchers saw a decrease in frost, ice and extreme cold days and an increase in thaw days. Milder temperatures may feel welcomed — for example, less money spent on heating bills and less time shoveling show — but snow and ice directly influences ecosystems and the communities that rely on them.

“I think people, especially the average public, rarely stop to think about how important the cold temperature and snow are,” Contosta said.

As snow cover and ice decrease, insect pests increase. The southern pine beetle is one of the “most aggressive tree-killing insects in the world,” said the study, and when frigid winters aren’t around to kill them, these beetles can spread and attack forests. With less snow cover and ice, mammals and birds may also be forced to adapt, causing migrations and throwing off food chains.

For residents of this region, less snow and ice can cause more problems. Though hypothermia and other cold-related diseases may decrease, ticks, mosquitoes and other pests can increase, which put people at risk to more vector-borne diseases, like Lyme disease and West Nile virus.

What’s more, local economies can expect to take a hit from less snowy winters. New England states and Canadian provinces have built economies around snowy, icy winters — in the U.S. and Canada, winter sports are hundred-million-dollar industries. Less snow-covered days, however, may put these businesses in jeopardy.

Climate change drives these warmer, wetter winters. And as the world continues to warm, we don’t just have different ecosystems and less money from tourism or recreation, Costosta said. We’ll have a totally new landscape, both across the globe and in local communities.

“I really hope that [this study] helps people understand how climate change is happening in their own backyard,” said Contosta. “[These changes] affect everything, from public health to our culture and history, and to the wildlife that we love.”

To slow human-caused climate change, we need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and pressure leaders to take bold action. April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. Now is the time to mobilize for collective action on climate change. Join the movement.

The post North American winters are losing snow and ice appeared first on Earth Day.

Hurricane season lasts from June 1 to November 30, and right now, we are in the eye of the storm.

Names are being thrown around like we’re at baby shower: Dorian, Humberto, Lorenzo — and those are just this year’s hurricanes.

Estimates for tropical storms vary, but just for 2019, meteorological experts predict a total storm count  between 18–30. If that feels like a lot, it’s because it is. Not only is the frequency of these tropical tantrums increasing but so is their intensity.

And if we continue down this road of rising temperatures due to climate change, it’s only going to get worse.

What are experts saying?

In September, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its special report on oceans and the cryosphere, which had a lot to say about hurricanes. Most notably, the report stated that hurricanes at category 4 or 5 have increased in frequency over the last 30 years.

If that isn’t bad enough, according to NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, the intensity and duration of hurricanes have also increased and are on track to get worse.

Some could call it the perfect storm.

Weathering the storm

Getting through these storms unscathed will become increasingly difficult. As we’ve seen with Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, it’s not just small island chains that need to plan for the weather; it’s also big cities. But we must design the adaptations for these cities with everyone in mind. The problem is that we don’t have a good track record with this kind of adaptation, even before cities faced the devastating effects of climate change.

In the 1900s, Robert Moses — New York City’s master planner — designed the city in a way that segregated populations. With intentionally exclusive city planning, Moses ensured that only those of means would have access to certain areas like parks, playgrounds and beaches.

In modern cities, those with less are most at risk. Survival depends on access to safe, affordable spaces, but historically, those are out of reach for low-income communities. A prime example of this is New Orleans’s Seventh Ward, a neighborhood comprised mostly of people with lower incomes, which took a drastic beating from Katrina. A decade after the infamous hurricane, only 60% of the ward had been rebuilt.

So, what’s being done?

Cities around the world are trying to plan with the future in mind, but it’s pricey.

Miami Beach has been taking climate resilience planning to a whole new level. Literally. Part of the city’s adaptation strategy is to “have all roads reach 3.7[feet] … to deal with flooding issues,” according to the website Miami Beach Rising Above.

Of course, Miami Beach is relatively affluent compared to its neighbor, the Florida Keys, which are not as prepared as an island chain should be.

Less than 100 miles from Miami, the island chain was greatly damaged by Hurricane Irma back in 2017. Two years later, applicants from the Keys are still waiting on millions of dollars in federal disaster funding. Even more shocking, the last Climate Action Plan for Monroe County’s Florida Keys did not list building more resilient public structures as a high priority.

I have to believe we’ll band together to mitigate these effects, or at the very least, rise to meet the waves.

Otherwise, Venice is about to be a lot less charming.

Image at top: Hurricane Dorian, as seen from the International Space Station. Photo credit: Nick Hague/NASA.

The post The calm before the storm? Experts predict hurricane season to get worse appeared first on Earth Day.

For decades the ocean and cryosphere — the frozen parts of the planet — have been the unsung heroes in our climate crisis, absorbing 90 percent of the world’s excess heat. But now all that warming is catching up to us, a U.N. report out today warns.

The beating the ocean and ice have taken is outlined in full in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate, released this morning in Monaco.

“The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades,” said Kim Barrett, vice-chair of the IPCC, at a press conference early Wednesday. “The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.”

The message from the report was clear: We need urgent action on climate change to avert the worst impacts to the ocean, ecosystems and the world we leave for future generations.

Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and their effect on planetary warming, have already thrown off the delicate balance of nature, melting ice caps and glaciers and acidifying waters, according to the report. The report also warns that sea ice melt has caused sea levels to rise dramatically, while warmer oceans feeds more intense storms, putting many already-vulnerable communities at ever-increasing risk.

The report stressed that these changes in climate and the world aren’t limited to some patch of water in the middle of the ocean. Rather, the impacts are far-reaching, influencing the Arctic and the tropics, as well high and low regions, from mountaintops to coastal areas.

“The ocean and cryosphere … might feel very remote to some people, but they impact all of us,” said Hoesung Lee, chairman of the IPCC, at the Wednesday press conference releasing the report. “If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, global warming will drastically alter the ocean and the cryosphere.”

The report’s findings, detailed in a 45-page Summary for Policymakers, are striking.

In the last 26 years, the rate of ocean warming has more than doubled. The frequency of marine heatwaves has also doubled since 1982 and are getting more intense every year.

As greenhouse gas emissions are left unchecked, everything gets worse: By 2100, the ocean will absorb two to four times more heat if global warming is limited to 2 degrees Celsius — an almost best-case scenario given our current emissions projections. Beyond 2 degrees, oceans could take in as much as seven times more heat, with devastating impacts on warm-water corals, kelp forests and the distribution and productivity of marine life.

For ice caps and glaciers, the report’s projections are not much better: Sea ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet tripled in the last ten years, compared to the previous ten years, according to the report. In the mountains, shrinking snowpack and glaciers will put people at risk of more floods, landslides and avalanches, with impacts also on recreational activities, tourism and other cultural assets.

With increases in winter runoffs and earlier spring peaks from melting ice and snow, people will likely face more water shortages during the hottest months of the year, the report warns. Again, these impacts will be felt worldwide by both developed and developing nations. In areas like the American Southwest, for example, more than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River, which is fed by the snowmelt of the Rocky Mountains, for drinking water and irrigation.

Wednesday’s special report is the first time the IPCC has directly assessed the connections between greenhouse gas emissions and extreme weather events like hurricanes and floods. The report points to growing scientific evidence that emissions fuel intense weather events and contribute to the recent phenomenon of more intense and frequent storms, like the Category 5 Hurricane Dorian, which recently ravaged the Bahamas.

From an ecological standpoint, as oceans absorb more carbon dioxide, waters become more acidic, a double-edged sword for marine environments: Acidic waters have decreased levels of oxygen — the report notes the upper layer of the ocean has lost 0.5–3.3 percent of oxygen since 1970 — and also reduce the ability of shellfish species to build protective shells, as acidic waters literally eat away the calcium carbonate that comprises marine ecosystems.

In short, warmer waters force species to adapt, some of which cannot keep up with our current rate of warming. The result is extinction and the loss of species we can never get back.

“One of the saddest things is that some of these species are trying to respond to these changes and can’t,” says Katie Wood, conversation and biodiversity manager at Earth Day Network. “It’s not an economic issue. It’s a morality issue, and as stewards of the earth, we’re failing our planet and its creatures.”

One of the questions addressed this morning by the panel of scientists concerned tipping points, a moment when the effects of climate change are so great that, regardless of emission cutbacks, the climate system begins to work against itself, greatly contributing to climate change in the process.

One example of a tipping point is permafrost thawing, which is projected to continue through this century and beyond, the report stated. As permafrost thaws, it exposes centuries-old organic matter to sunlight, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Today’s report includes warming pathways that could lead to the release of hundreds of billions of tons of permafrost carbon by 2100. And once permafrost melts it’s unlikely it will ever freeze again, at least not until the next ice age.

Oceans and the cryosphere are almost uncomprehendingly large, but the special report gives perspective on how to join science with policy, knowledge and resources to drive innovative solutions and curb the worst effects of climate change.

The first step is to quickly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the root of most all these problems.

“The more decisively and earlier we act, the more able we will be to address unavoidable changes, manage risks, improve our lives and achieve sustainability for ecosystems and people around the world, both today and in the future,” said IPCC Co-Chair Debra Roberts at the press conference.

In addition to urgent action, we need “ambitious emissions reductions, together with coordinated sustained and increasingly ambitious adaptation actions,” the report stated.

The report suggested protection and adaptation measures like engineering more climate-resistant infrastructure, alongside more conservation management for fisheries and marine-protected areas and restoration efforts for wetlands and coral reefs.

We also need to consider what used to be a controversial strategy but has since become commonplace: managed relocation, which would require moving families from areas they’ve called home for generations.

As in previous reports, the IPCC stressed the inclusion of indigenous and local knowledge to combat the worst effects of climate change on oceans and the cryosphere. The special report was also the first from the IPCC to formally include education as part of the solutions.

The IPCC released the report during the U.N. General Assembly, which kicked off Monday with the Climate Action Summit at U.N. headquarters in New York City. Though the scientists refrained from commenting on actions of world leaders, they did acknowledge the timing of the report and its ability to influence discussions in New York.

The IPCC panel also recognized that people are more aware of the effects of climate change than ever before. This is especially true for young people, who last week led a global climate strike movement that mobilized 4 million people around the world and helped lead to the first-ever U.N. Youth Climate Summit on Saturday. The weekend was punctuated by an impassioned speech by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, calling out government inaction in the face of climate change at the U.N. Climate Action Summit, convened by Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday.

Said Barrett Wednesday morning, “The events surrounding the gathering in New York has certainly demonstrated groundswell of action across the world, particularly by youth, that have been very much supported by the science that we and others provide.”

Perhaps that is the greatest takeaway from the IPCC’s latest special report. For the last thirty years, the IPCC has provided science and statistics that outline the dangers of climate change and unchecked greenhouse gas emissions. While previous generations have ignored these warning signs, young people are heeding reports as ammunition to inform and drive the fight against business-as-usual politics.

Action has been taken around the world, showing that we can cut down on greenhouse gas emissions while still improving society’s well-being. Now we need to scale these actions up to the global level, and quickly. This latest report may serve as additional fuel for the youth movements to further pressure our world leaders into action. And to solve this issue, it will require a unified response from all sectors and generations, as today’s scientists explained.

“We can act,” said Roberts. “We need to mobilize at scale and work together to pull resources at multiple levels across scales.”

The post The ocean is taking heat for unchecked climate change, UN report warns appeared first on Earth Day.

In 1985, scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer. That didn’t bode well for anyone.

“It was as if, without warning, the sky opened and the sun burst through all its irradiating, blinding fury…” writes author Nathaniel Rich. “Armageddon descending from above.”

While that description may sound hyperbolic, the impact was potentially devastating. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending.

A tremendous effort by the international community culminated in an international agreement, and within two years, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was ratified. Soon, the planet began fixing itself.

On September 23, the United Nations Climate Action Summit is revisiting commitments made in the Paris Agreement, the current international treaty that aims to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius by century’s end. With these upcoming talks, one wonders: Can we apply the same gumption and cooperation that we had with the Montreal Protocol to our climate crisis?

In short, it’s complicated.

“[The Montreal Protocol] is obviously very different from the Paris Agreement,” said Nick Nuttall, former U.N. spokesperson and Earth Day Network strategic communications director. “The Montreal Protocol’s limited number of chemicals were far easier to deal with, and it wasn’t a complete transformation of all the levers of the economy.”

Climate change is probably humanity’s greatest threat to date, capable of collapsing societies and wiping out entire species. When you compare a threat that big to anything, even another environmental issue that was tackled through international agreements, it’s not apples to apples.

Still, when it comes to environmental solutions, we should seize any lesson we can learn from, and we can definitely learn from what went down in Montreal in the ‘80s.

Discovering and patching the ozone hole

First, some housekeeping: The ozone hole wasn’t really a hole. The hole that scientists discovered was more of a thinning layer, where concentrations of ozone, or O3, are low. This layer acts a bit like a sunscreen, protecting the planet from harmful UV rays.

“Ozone, together with ordinary molecular oxygen (O2), is able to absorb the major part of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and therefore prevent this dangerous radiation from reaching the surface,” according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

So, if the ozone were to suddenly disappear, or come under attack by damaging chemicals — dare we say, supplied by humans — we’d be in trouble. That’s exactly what two chemists from the University of California, Irvine, showed in 1974.

That year, scientists Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina detailed in the journal Nature how chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — common chemicals in refrigerants and aerosol sprays — can destroy the ozone layer. As CFCs enter the atmosphere, the sun breaks down their structure, which releases chlorine atoms. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one chlorine atom can destroy 100,000 ozone molecules, depleting ozone faster than the ozone can be replaced.

This publication and its impacts eventually led to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for Rowland and Molina, although worldwide support was slow-coming.

“There was a debate about the science,” says Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, who has been involved in the Montreal Protocol since its inception. “The industry people really were explaining that Molina-Rowland hypothesis was from outer space and that these guys were crackpots.” (Industry attacking science — sound familiar?)

Despite initial backlash, Rowland and Molina’s research was validated more than a decade later, when British scientists discovered a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica in 1985. Through the groundwork done by Rowland and Molina, the connection was made between human activity and thinning in the ozone layer.

Soon, people realized the drastic effects a hole in the ozone layer could have. Without quick action, the impacts could have been devastating. Harmful UV rays that penetrate the Earth’s stratosphere can lead to increased rates of skin cancer and cataracts. The Australian government predicted that without a solution, the case of skin cancer could have risen two-hundredfold within its borders. If we didn’t do something quick, we’d be in deep trouble.

Lucky for us, we did something.

It culminated in 1987 with the U.N. Montreal Protocol, a landmark agreement banning CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances. The agreement set a mandatory timetable for the phasing out of main ozone-depleting substances and provided money to developing countries to help them phase out these substances. Meanwhile, the companies that made these chemicals also got on board.

“The industry learned how to work in harmony with the Montreal Protocol,” says Zaelke. “They learned that they could innovate and create better refrigerants that have lower impact on the environment, in terms of ozone depletion and climate.”

The protocol is still the only U.N. treaty to be unanimously ratified by all U.N. member states. Today, the ozone hole is repairing itself and is expected to make a full recovery, healing itself completely in the coming decades. Just as important are the effects this treaty has had in combatting climate change. From 1989–2013, the protocol’s ban on certain chemicals reduced cumulative CO2-equivalent emissions by 135 billion tons.

Today, the treaty is widely considered one of the greatest environmental successes in human history. So, can we apply what we learned from this massive success to the challenges we now face with global warming?

From Montreal to Paris

Despite the scientific consensus that humans have accelerated climate change, global leaders still drag their feet on the issue.  For at least 30 years (and some would say more like 50–60), politicians, scientists and industries have recognized the causes of climate change and its catastrophic impacts.

So, how did we rally behind our ozone-hole problem so fast? At first glance, the similarities between climate change and the ozone hole seem apparent. Although the ozone problem is more narrowly focused than climate change, both problems are human caused, both problems have scientific consensus and both problems, despite scientific complexities, can still be explained in one or two sentences. (Let’s try it for climate change: Burning fossil fuels emits gasses that trap heat and make the planet warmer. Chaos ensues.)

So, what gives? Well, it turns out there’s quite a bit of difference between Montreal and Paris.

For one, in addition to the environmental impacts — like harming plants and marine ecosystems — a hole in the ozone layer had immediate human health impacts. According to the EPA, a thinned ozone layer could lead to skin cancers and cataracts. People tend to react to that kind of threat, whereas climate change hurts us in the long run but not always immediately.

“We are very well adapted to respond to immediate threats but slow to accommodate moving change,” writes George Marshall, in his book Don’t Even Think About It: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Ignore Climate Change.

The hole in the ozone layer was one thing everyone could point to, with a cause and effect: CFCs are destroying the ozone layer, so to fix it, we need to ban CFCs. Climate change problems, however, are “multifaceted in every respect — they are incomplete, contradictory, and constantly changing,” writes Marshall.

Climate change is also inherently tied to the economy. Greenhouse gases like CO2 are prevalent in huge sectors of national economies, like transportation, manufacturing, energy and infrastructure. Comparatively, CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances were limited to few industries.

“The [ozone] problem was confined to a limited number of chemicals and a limited number of companies — not, as is the case with climate change, a transformation of the global economy away from two centuries of development based on fossil fuels,” said Nuttall.

The limited scope of CFCs and the ozone hole also helped focus the efforts of scientists, making the problem much more manageable to solve.

“The [Montreal Protocol] benefited from being a focused sectoral agreement — the fluorinated-gas universe,” continued Zaelke, in an email. “This allowed the scientists, technologists, and policymakers to learn faster, the technology to develop faster and for scientists, businesses and policymakers to gain confidence to do more and more.”

This focus across sectors may be where we can start looking to the Montreal Protocol as a model for our approach to tackling climate change.

What we can learn from Montreal

Zaelke thinks a sectoral approach could be applied to climate change. Take two high-emitting industries: cement and steel manufacturing. Zaelke believes a coordinated effort that divides the climate problem into sectors can encourage faster learning. And, like industries adjusting to the regulations of the Montreal Protocol, this sectoral approach can drive technology forward while reducing environmental impacts.

The Montreal Protocol also called for Multilateral Fund, established in 1990, which was “basically money contributed by developed countries and renewed periodically that paid developing countries and developing country industries to make the switches to the new generations of chemicals,” said Nuttall.

A similar pledge exists in the Paris Agreement called the Green Climate Fund, which pledges $100 billion annually by 2020. So far, however, donor nations have only contributed $10.3 billion, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Another big reason the Montreal Protocol worked was because of the public support generated by scientists-turned-advocates. That advocacy must be present today if we’re going to reduce some of the most devastating effects of global warming.

Rowland and Molina became advocates, which made them prey to backlash and skepticism in the short run (see above). But at the same time, it got the point across and delivered the urgent message of the ozone hole (and awarded them a Nobel Prize, years later). Because of their advocacy, says Zaelke, people began boycotting bug sprays, hairsprays and other spray cans that propelled these ozone-depleting chemicals into the atmosphere.

Advocacy is understandably a big leap for many scientists, who prefer the lab to the press room. But when it comes to an issue as important as climate change, it’s necessary. One can already see the changes in scientists representing in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), acting more and more like advocates with each new terrifying report.

To drive these messages home, scientists need to become powerful communicators, using clear, accessible language, real-life examples and relatable metrics.

Another lesson from Montreal? To solve a runaway environmental crisis, it helps to bring it in check quickly. The Montreal Protocol worked because an international committee assembled and solved the issue with the urgency the crisis demanded. They recognized that every day they didn’t address CFCs made the problem worse.

Point in case, 2018’s landmark IPCC report, which gave us 12 years to avert catastrophe wouldn’t have been so drastic (or dire) if we had started making gradual changes back in the ’80s.

This precautionary principle is important, because it avoids “far bigger, longer, more expensive and potentially more damaging consequences that can arise by postponing action,” said Nuttall.

“Even eventually with the superb, cooperative, efforts of governments, the U.N., industry and NGOs,” he continued, “it can take decades to turn around a big global environmental challenge, as we know the ozone layer will not fully heal for many years to come.”

Because of decades of inaction, we’ll also be feeling the effects of climate change for some time.

Take the wins when you can

Let’s not forget about the huge effects the Montreal Protocol has had. In a world where effective action on climate change is dreadfully slow, we must hold onto the wins we have and use them to model the future. Without such mindsets, we’ll never drive off the climate despair and even the nihilism that comes with it.

The Montreal Protocol is a story too often overlooked because it doesn’t deal with more prominent greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. But the treaty’s co-benefits of reducing effects on climate change are a huge part of the protocol’s story.

Chemicals like CFCs and its replacements HCFC (hydrochlorofluorocarbons) and now HFCs (hydroflorocarbon) are major contributors to climate change. HFCs don’t harm the ozone layer but have 1,000–9,000 the warming capacity than carbon dioxide. These chemicals are commonly used in refrigeration and air conditioning.

These chemicals’ warming potentials are so bad that according to Project Drawdown, refrigeration management is the number-one way (yes, you read that correctly) to cut greenhouse gas emissions and reverse global warming. Fortunately, the Montreal Protocol continues to expand in scope.

A big part of Montreal Protocol’s success is that it wasn’t a one-and-done back in the ‘80s. Rather the treaty has been amended over and over, each time making the agreement better for the environment. The Kigali Amendment is the latest such update, and it proposes to phase out HFCs, starting with higher-income countries and working down toward all counties by 2024. This phaseout would limit global warming by 0.5 degrees Celsius this century.

We need all hands on deck to slow and reverse the trends of global warming. The Montreal Protocol provides us with a good model of the future, showing a successful execution of international environmental policy. Sure, the Montreal Protocol differs from the Paris Agreement, but we can only stand to gain from studying the former’s success.

There’s still time to reach a manageable and sustainable future, but to do that, we must pull out all the stops. That includes learning from our past.

The post What can we learn from the Montreal Protocol? appeared first on Earth Day.

As algae blooms explode around the U.S., infecting shorelines with toxic, sludgy waters, an otherwise relaxing day at the beach can quickly turn into a hazardous mess.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a harmful algae bloom bulletin about the western basin of Lake Erie, warning that toxic algae in Lake Erie may be “exceeding the recreational threshold.”

Cuyahoga County, which contains Cleveland, Ohio, and surrounding counties have issued similar advisories, in some cases closing beaches entirely. Besides ruining a day at the beach, though, these toxic waters can disrupt ecosystems, hurt people and, in the case of recent reports from New York City, even kill dogs.

Algae blooms aren’t small, isolated events: Lake Erie’s current algae bloom is roughly 620 square miles, large enough to cover all of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, algae blooms have been cited in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and Gulf of California and everywhere in between, including small lakes, ponds and rivers.

“The problem for everything is that, in most cases, it’s all connected,” says Wayne Wurtsbaugh, an ecologist and professor emeritus at Utah State University, in an interview with Earth Day Network.

Algae bloom-fueling nutrients added to a stream in the Midwest, for example, can go down the Mississippi River and end up causing blooms in the Gulf of Mexico.

This makes algae blooms hard to manage regionally, because one solution that works in what area may not work in another.

Let’s unpack this slimy mess.

What’s an algae bloom?

Algae is a natural part of water ecosystems. Most algae are harmless, but not all.

Harmful algae blooms happen “when colonies of algae — simple plants that live in the sea and freshwater — grow out of control while producing toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine mammals, and birds,” according to the National Ocean Service.

“There’s good algae, and there’s bad algae,” says Wurtsbaugh. “In fresh waters, the real bad algae aren’t really algae at all. They’re cyanobacteria, and they’re the ones that produce toxins.”

Many types of toxic algae exist, but the most commonly reported are cyanobacteria (in freshwater) and dinoflagellates (in saltwater). When these algae bloom, or multiply, and release toxins, we have trouble.

What causes algae blooms?

Calm conditions, warm waters and high nutrient levels all feed algae blooms, says Wurtsbaugh.

Algae thrive in warm, nutrient-rich water. When farmers apply fertilizers to their fields, those nutrient-rich fertilizers aren’t all absorbed by crops. A lot of it runs off, ending up in rivers or streams and eventually larger bodies of water like lakes or oceans.

“We’re using more fertilizer than we need, and we’re not managing it effectively,” says Katie Wood, conservation and biodiversity manager at Earth Day Network. “We’re changing ecosystems and one of the results of that is more algal blooms, specifically more toxic algal blooms.”

With that in mind, recent algae blooms in the U.S. can be linked to two main causes: increased nutrients in the water; and warmer weather (June and July were the hottest months on record).

What about climate change?

With climate change, that warmer weather is going to be more frequent, which will probably lead to more algae blooms.

“Longer growing seasons probably mean longer periods of [exposure] to cyanobacteria,” says Wurtsbaugh. “There’s no real study that has shown climate change has caused bigger blooms. Although, it’s the likeliest scenario.”

In addition to being influenced by climate, algae blooms are also influenced by natural weather systems.

“Calm winds in July allowed algae toxins to accumulate at the surface (instead of being dispersed),” said NASA in a statement about Lake Erie’s algae blooms. “Strong winds in August have since mixed some surface algae to deeper depths. Heavy rains carry excess nutrients (often fertilizer) from farms into the lake.”

Climate change can trigger more intense rainfall — the Great Lakes have had an especially wet summer — and with more rainfall, more nutrients end up in the water, not just from fertilizer runoff, but also from sewage overflow, an outpour of stressed stormwater infrastructure.

Deforestation, poor farming practices and soil erosion compound this problem: Without plants rooted in the ground to absorb these nutrients, more nutrients run off into the water. Urbanization, specifically the paving over of otherwise absorbing wetlands and fields, also accelerates this runoff.

And once these nutrients get into the water, it’s another whole story.

What’s happening underwater?

Algae absorb the phosphorous and nitrogen found in nature. In a natural cycle, this is good for ecosystems: Algae converts sunlight into carbohydrates, plankton graze these carb-heavy algae, that plankton is eaten by other fish, those fish are eaten by bigger fish and on it goes up the food chain.

When heat and nutrients are added to the water, algae have more food than typically available, says Wood. “They undergo this mass expansion because they have more capability to produce food, and they start reproducing.”

But too much of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. The massive blooms of algae eventually sink and decompose, sucking oxygen — and consequently, life — out of the water.

“Nutrient overdosing creates so much life that its inevitable decay burns up so much oxygen that nothing can survive,” writes Milwaukee-based journalist Dan Egan in his book The Death and Life of the Great Lakes.

This process, called eutrophication, can suffocate entire ecosystems, creating dead zones that span hundreds of miles. Adding insult to injury, on top of sucking up oxygen, some species of algae can also produce toxins that poison the water column.

Why are algae blooms bad?

Aside from the whole ecosystem collapse thing, the toxins released in algae blooms have also been linked to human health problems, including vomiting, diarrhea, liver and kidney damage, tumor growth and even respiratory paralyses leading to death of humans, livestock and birds.

Nutrient pollution can also get into the air, causing acid rain and smog that damage trees and vegetation even far from the source.

Additionally, the makeup of these algae are such that these algae float to the top of the water, continuously absorbing the sunlight, blocking out the sun for plants below and serving as a direct hazard to the public.

“They form these scums at the surface, and then you have these extremely high concentrations right where the swimmers are,” says Wurtsbaugh.

And then there’s the economy. The U.S. Geological Survey points to economic damages from algae blooms like “loss of recreational revenue, decreased property values, and increased drinking-water treatment costs.” Additionally, commercial fishing and shellfish losses can span into the tens of millions of dollars.

Perhaps most concerning is what algae blooms can do to drinking water. The Great Lakes is the largest body of freshwater in the entire world. If we pollute it with nutrients, the effects could be devastating. Algae blooms sparked Toledo’s 2014 water crisis, contaminating drinking water for more than 450,000 residents. Just a year before, the city spent $4 million to remove toxins from their water supply.

How can we prevent algae blooms?

One of the best ways to prevent algae blooms is to control how we feed them. By managing the amount of nutrients ending up in water, we can take a big step toward curbing algae blooms.

“The nutrients are something we can control right now, and the nutrients are the biggest part of the story,” says Wurtsbaugh. “The simplest part is to stop overfertilizing. That’s a simple fix and people are getting better at it.”

Other solutions include limiting erosion. One way to do that is through buffer strips. Buffer strips provide a barrier between agriculture and nearby streams, keeping vegetation intact and catching any potential nutrient runoff.

We can also improve our wastewater management systems, properly removing the nutrients in our waste before it ends up in a waterway. Several good solutions are within reach. Ultimately, the important thing is to do something, and to do it fast.

“Algae has been around for ages. There’s a lot of good algae, and there’s always been bad algae,” says Wood. “It’s just that we’re amplifying the problem by not managing our fertilizers.”

As climate change continues to warm waters, algae will bloom, and toxins will spread. But effective and sustainable land and agriculture practices can help curb some of the effects of harmful algae blooms. Join Earth Day Network’s Green Cities and Protect Our Species campaigns to learn more about protecting our cities’ waterways and species.

Top image: An algae bloom covers Lake Erie. Photo credit: Zachary Haslick/Aerial Associates, Inc.

The post How toxic algae blooms work appeared first on Earth Day.