2019-01-01_Discover

Carbon Rising

In May, an observatory in Hawaii

measured Earth’s

atmospheric

carbon dioxide

levels at 411

parts per

million —

the highest

monthly

average

recorded

in modern

times, and a

level the planet

hasn’t seen in at

least 800,000 years.

Hothouse Earth

The consequences of surpassing a

2-degree Celsius increase

in global

temperature

isn’t just

widespread

crop

failures,

record-

setting

heat and

rising seas.

An August

PNAS study

says it could

also tip the planet

into new, irreversible

climate patterns.

Current Weakening

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning

Circulation (AMOC) moves streams of

warm and cool water

between the

tropics and

Greenland,

helping

regulate

Earth’s

climate.

These ocean

currents

slowed to a

record low in

2018. Without a
      strong AMOC, we
      can expect more summer
      heat waves in Europe, sea level rise on the
      eastern U.S. and drought in Africa’s Sahel,
      the continent’s transition zone from
      Sahara to savanna.

YEAR

WASTE IN MILLION METRIC TONS

1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025

Historical

Projected

Import ban

250

200

150

100

50

0

2030 2035

111

million

metric

tons of

projected

plastic

waste

FURTHER AFIELD

January/February 2019^ DISCOVER^35

A 2018 study in Science Advances charted the “business as usual” trend of

a steady increase in the amount of global plastic waste shipped to China

— and the dramatic effect of an import ban on the material, instituted in

2017, that is projected to leave 111 million metric tons of tossed plastic

with nowhere to go by 2030.

Source: “The Chinese import ban and its impact on

global plastic waste trade,” Science Advances, 2018

Plastic Waste Imported by China

(Estimated cumulative total global amount)

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER; MYKHAILO PAVLENKO/SHUTTERSTOCK; ZHARKAYA/SHUTTERSTOCK;PETER HERMES FURIAN/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO