2019-01-01_Discover

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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


  1. 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

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