What's happening in China could help change the world

We got a timely alert on the growing dangers of climate change this week, when scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration teamed up with their counterparts from 61 other nations to report from the front lines of climate chaos in 2015.

Guilin, China

Global temperatures set records on land and at sea. So did atmospheric levels of climate-disrupting greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which averaged 400.8 parts per million at the monitoring station at Mauna Loa, Hawaii. That’s a staggering 43 percent higher than when .the Industrial Revolution ushered in the widespread burning of coal, gas, and oil.

The result: widespread hazard and harm worldwide.

Global sea level was the highest on record. Vast walrus herds were forced onto land as Arctic sea ice fell to 29 percent below average and warming waters drove out important fish like polar cod. Alpine glaciers retreated worldwide — for the 36th year in a row.

Read Rhea Suh’s NRDC story - “What I Saw in China Will Help Change the World.”