Science Of Climate Change Regular CO2 Natural Life Processes Rampant CO2 Oceanic Buildup Ocean Acidification Atmospheric Buildup Warming Disrupted Circulation Sea Level Rise Great, but what exactly are we talking about here? The science of climate change can actually be explained relatively simply: First off, regular carbon dioxide, like what animals breathe out and plants use for photosynthesis is a healthy and natural part of life processes However, rampant carbon dioxide, like what we release when we burn fossil fuels, is excess carbon dioxide we’ve added into the mix that is not a part of natural systems. In fact, there’s too much of it, and it’s getting out of control. Some of this rampant carbon dioxide that we’re emitting builds up in the ocean, where it undergoes a chemical reaction with seawater that increases the acidity of the ocean and binds up an important chemical called carbonate that many sea creatures at the bottom of ocean food chains need to build their shells. We call this ocean acidification, and it has impacts like an osteoporosis of the sea. Our carbon dioxide emissions also build up in the atmosphere around our planet, where they act like a heat trapping blanket. The more carbon dioxide we emit, the thicker the blanket gets and the more heat it traps underneath, causing global average temperatures to rise. As global temperatures rise, the excess heat disrupts the ocean current systems that act like the heart of our climate system, helping to circulate heat and moisture in just the right amounts throughout the world to moderate our climate. With this circulation system disrupted, some regions of the world can end up getting more heat and moisture than they should, while others get less. As global temperatures rise, land-based glaciers also melt, contributing additional water to the volume of our oceans while warming ocean water itself expands to take up more volume through a process called thermal expansion. As the ocean’s grow in volume, they start to inundate the land, which we call sea level rise And that’s all of climate science in a nut shell. Keep some of these processes in mind at a very basic level as we shift to talking about interpreting climate change.