This new study led by Yuan Wang and published in the latest edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) presents a global multiscale perspective of the climatic effects of pollution outflows from Asia.

The observed stability of Earth’s climate over millions of years is thought to depend on the rate of carbon dioxide (CO2) release from the solid Earth being balanced by the rate of CO2 consumption by silicate weathering.

The Greenland ice sheet has been one of the largest contributors to global sea-level rise over the past 20 years, accounting for 0.5 mm yr−1 of a total of 3.2 mm yr−1. A significant portion of this contribution is associated with the speed-up of an increased number of glaciers in southeast and northwest Greenland. Here, we show that the northeast Greenland ice stream, which extends more than 600 km into the interior of the ice sheet, is now undergoing sustained dynamic thinning, linked to regional warming, after more than a quarter of a century of stability.

Climate is recognized as one of the main factors responsible for shaping large-scale species distributions. Global climate change observed over the past decades has produced shifts in the distribution and abundance of numerous species and is responsible for species extinction. Increased levels of global warming are expected to have different effects on species, based on their life-history traits,, dispersal rates, and habitat requirements.