What Are the Effects of Climate Change?

Climate change is our planet’s greatest existential threat. If we don’t limit greenhouse gas
emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, the consequences of rising global temperatures
include massive crop and fishery collapse, the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of
species, and entire communities becoming uninhabitable. While these outcomes may still be
avoidable, climate change is already causing suffering and death. From raging wildfires and
supercharged storms, its compounding effects can be felt today, outside our own windows.

Understanding these impacts can help us prepare for what’s here, what’s avoidable, and what’s
yet to come, and to better prepare and protect all communities. Even though everyone is or will
be affected by climate change, those living in the world’s poorest countries—which have
contributed least to the problem—are the most climate-vulnerable. They have the fewest
financial resources to respond to crises or adapt, and they’re closely dependent on a healthy,
thriving natural world for food and income. Similarly, in the United States, it is most often low-
income communities and communities of color that are on the frontlines of climate impacts.
And because climate change and rising inequality are interconnected crises, decision makers
must take action to combat both—and all of us must fight for climate justice. Here’s what you
need to know about what we’re up against.

Effects of climate change on weather

As global temperatures climb, widespread shifts in weather systems occur, making events like
droughts, hurricanes, and floods more intense and unpredictable. Extreme weather events that
may have hit just once in our grandparents’ lifetimes are becoming more common in ours.
However, not every place will experience the same effects: Climate change may cause severe
drought in one region while making floods more likely in another.

Already, the planet has warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since the
preindustrial era began 250 years ago, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC). And scientists warn it could reach a worst-case scenario of 4 degrees Celsius (7.2
degrees Fahrenheit) by 2100 if we fail to tackle the causes of climate change—namely, the
burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas).

Higher average temperatures

This change in global average temperature—seemingly small but consequential and climbing—
means that, each summer, we are likely to experience increasingly sweltering heat waves. Even
local news meteorologists are starting to connect strings of record-breaking days to new long-
term trends, which are especially problematic in regions where infrastructure and housing have
not been built with intensifying heat in mind. And heat waves aren’t just uncomfortable—
they’re the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the United States.

Longer-lasting droughts

Hotter temperatures increase the rate at which water evaporates from the air, leading to more
severe and pervasive droughts. Already, climate change has pushed the American West into a
severe “megadrought”—the driest 22-year stretch recorded in at least 1,200 years—shrinking
drinking water supplies, withering crops, and making forests more susceptible to insect
infestations. Drought can also create a positive feedback loop in which drier soil and less plant
cover cause even faster evaporation.

More intense wildfires

This drier, hotter climate also creates conditions that fuel more vicious wildfire seasons—with
fires that spread faster and burn longer—putting millions of additional lives and homes at risk.
The number of large wildfires doubled between 1984 and 2015 in the western United States.
And in California alone, the annual area burned by wildfires increased 500 percent between
1972 and 2018.

Stronger storms

Warmer air also holds more moisture, making tropical cyclones wetter, stronger, and more
capable of rapidly intensifying. In the latest report from the IPCC, scientists found that daily
rainfall during extreme precipitation events would increase by about 7 percent for each degree
Celsius of global warming, increasing the dangers of flooding. The frequency of severe Category
4 and 5 hurricanes is also expected to increase. In 2017, Hurricane Harvey, a devastating
Category 4 storm, dumped a record 275 trillion pounds of rain and resulted in dozens of deaths
in the Houston area.

Effects of climate change on the environment

From the poles to the tropics, climate change is disrupting ecosystems. Even a seemingly slight
shift in temperature can cause dramatic changes that ripple through food webs and the
environment.

Melting sea ice

The effects of climate change are most apparent in the world’s coldest regions—the poles. The
Arctic is heating up twice as fast as anywhere else on earth, leading to the rapid melting of
glaciers and polar ice sheets, where a massive amount of water is stored. As sea ice melts,
darker ocean waters that absorb more sunlight become exposed, creating a positive feedback
loop that speeds up the melting process. In just 15 years, the Arctic could be entirely ice-free in
the summer.

Sea level rise

Scientists predict that melting sea ice and glaciers, as well as the fact that warmer water
expands in volume, could cause sea levels to rise as much as 6.6 feet by the end of the century,
should we fail to curb emissions. The extent (and pace) of this change would devastate low-lying
regions, including island nations and densely populated coastal cities like New York City and
Mumbai.

But sea level rise at far lower levels is still costly, dangerous, and disruptive. According to the
2022 Sea Level Rise Technical Report from the National Ocean Service, the United States will see
a foot of sea level rise by 2050, which will regularly damage infrastructure, like roads, sewage
treatment plants, and even power plants. Beaches that families have grown up visiting may be
gone by the end of the century. Sea level rise also harms the environment, as encroaching
seawater can both erode coastal ecosystems and invade freshwater inland aquifers, which we
rely on for agriculture and drinking water. Saltwater incursion is already reshaping life in nations
like Bangladesh, where one-quarter of the lands lie less than 7 feet above sea level.