Does GOP want a boiling planet? (Opinion) | CNN

Melting polar ice caps —

The consequences of climate change go far beyond warming temperatures, which scientists say are melting the polar ice caps and raising sea levels. Click through the gallery for a look at 10 other key effects of climate change, some of which may surprise you.

Josef Friedhuber/Getty Images/File

Drought —

In the coming decades climate change will unleash megadroughts lasting 10 years or more, according to a new report by scholars at Cornell University, the University of Arizona and the U.S. Geological Survey. We're seeing hints of this already in many arid parts of the world and even in California, which has been rationing water amid record drought. In this 2012 photo, a man places his hand on parched soil in the Greater Upper Nile region of northeastern South Sudan.

Julien Behal/PA Wire/AP/File

Wildfires —

There's not a direct link between climate change and wildfires, exactly. But many scientists believe the increase in wildfires in the Western United States is partly the result of tinder-dry forests parched by warming temperatures. This photo shows a wildfire as it approaches the shore of Bass Lake, California, in mid-September.

Darvin Atkeson/YosemiteLandscapes.com/AP

Coral reefs —

Scientists say the oceans' temperatures have risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit over the last century. It doesn't sound like much, but it's been enough to affect the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs, which have been bleaching and dying off in recent decades. This photo shows dead coral off the coast of St. Martin's Island in Bangladesh.

Majority World/UIG/Getty Images/File

<a href="http://ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/" target="_blank" target="_blank">A U.N. panel found in March</a> that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up<strong> </strong>food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.

Food prices —

A U.N. panel found in March that climate change -- mostly drought -- is already affecting the global agricultural supply and will likely drive up food prices. Here, in 2010, workers on combines harvest soybeans in northern Brazil. Global food experts have warned that climate change could double grain prices by 2050.

Andre Penner/AP/File

Pollen allergies —

Are you sneezing more often these days? Climate change may be to blame for that, too. Recent studies show that rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels promote the growth of weedy plant species that produce allergenic pollen. The worst place in the United States for spring allergies in 2014, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America? Louisville, Kentucky.

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images/File

Climate change has not been kind to the world's<strong> </strong>forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. <a href="http://www.colorado.edu/news/releases/2012/03/14/discovery-pine-beetles-breeding-twice-year-helps-explain-increasing-damage#sthash.PCdFWhdi.dpuf" target="_blank" target="_blank">University of Colorado researchers have found</a> that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.

Deforestation —

Climate change has not been kind to the world's forests. Invasive species such as the bark beetle, which thrive in warmer temperatures, have attacked trees across the North American west, from Mexico to the Yukon. University of Colorado researchers have found that some populations of mountain pine beetles now produce two generations per year, dramatically boosting the bugs' threat to lodgepole and ponderosa pines. In this 2009 photo, dead spruces of the Yukon's Alsek River valley attest to the devastation wrought by the beetles.

Rick Bowmer/AP/File

Mountain glaciers —

The snows capping majestic Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, once inspired Ernest Hemingway. Now they're in danger of melting away altogether. Studies suggest that if the mountain's snowcap continues to evaporate at its current rate, it could be gone in 15 years. Here, a Kilimanjaro glacier is viewed from Uhuru Peak in December 2010.

Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Laureus/File

Endangered species —

Polar bears may be the poster child for climate change's effect on animals. But scientists say climate change is wreaking havoc on many other species -- including birds and reptiles -- that are sensitive to fluctuations in temperatures. One, this golden toad of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, has already gone extinct.

U.S Fish and Wildlife Service

Animal migration —

It's not your imagination: Some animals -- mostly birds -- are migrating earlier and earlier every year because of warming global temperatures. Scholars from the University of East Anglia found that Icelandic black-tailed godwits have advanced their migration by two weeks over the past two decades. Researchers also have found that many species are migrating to higher elevations as temperatures climb.

Shutterstock

Extreme weather —

The planet could see as many as 20 more hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, according to a 2013 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This image shows Superstorm Sandy bearing down on the New Jersey coast in 2012.

Norman Kuring/Ocean Color Web/NASA

Effects of global warming around the world

Editor’s Note: Rhea Suh is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council and a former assistant secretary of the Interior. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

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2014 was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880

High temperatures have resulted in widening deserts, rising seas, droughts, ravaging storms, blistering heat

While President Obama is trying to tackle climate change, Republicans are blocking meaningful actions

CNN —

The U.S. ocean, atmospheric and space agencies affirmed on Friday what the planet has been telling us every way it knows how: 2014 was the hottest year since record keeping began in 1880.

That means average land and sea temperatures, worldwide, have never been hotter in modern times, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (the gold standard for global climate data) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (the guys who put a man on the moon).

This isn’t about whether we believe in science: It’s about whether we believe the thermometer.

In fact, the 16 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1997, the new data confirm, contributing to widening deserts, rising seas, withering drought, ravaging storms, blistering heat and other climate change impacts reaching from the tiniest African village to our own backyards.

Rhea Suh

Here in the United States, Arizona, Nevada, Alaska and California all wrapped up their hottest years on record. California remains mired in the grip of a three-year drought, its worst in centuries. The Northeast is still rebuilding from Hurricane Sandy. And that was just one of the climate-related disasters that cost this country an estimated $139 billion in damages in 2012 alone.

Above and beyond the economic costs, climate change has created a widening humanitarian crisis noted by spiritual leaders around the world. For example, Pope Francis is expected to publish an encyclical on the state of the world’s environment, singling out climate change as an urgent challenge to global stewardship. It’s reported that he’ll call on people of all faiths to embrace our obligation to protect future generations from this grave and gathering scourge.

President Obama has embarked on the single greatest U.S. effort yet to combat this growing menace, by reducing the dangerous carbon pollution that’s driving climate chaos. He has directed the Environmental Protection Agency to put in place the first limits on carbon pollution from the power plants that account for about 40% of the U.S. carbon footprint.

Under the President’s Clean Power Plan, we’ll cut carbon emissions from our power plants 26% by 2020 and 30% by 2030. We can do better than that – and we should. The President’s plan puts us on the right track.

Since last summer, EPA officials have been hard at work, coordinating with their state counterparts, public service commissions, power companies and other vested stakeholders to come up with tailor-made plans to hit the targets in the most cost-effective way.

Some power companies are already well on their way, investing in efficiency so we can do more with less waste, getting more power from the wind and sun, cleaning up dirty power plants or some combination of the three.

Even as we, as a nation, begin to make progress, though, some coal, gas and oil companies and their allies on Capitol Hill want to turn us back around.

Republican leaders in the Congress have pledged to lead legislative efforts meant to keep the EPA from cutting carbon pollution. The Republican leaders aren’t offering answers of their own, mind you; they just want to block any action that could help us address the problem of climate change. It’s part of the big polluter agenda they’ve vowed to press, putting fossil fuel profits first – and putting the rest of us at risk.

We have a responsibility in this country to stand up and speak out for what matters most. That’s the essence of American democracy. It’s part of what makes us exceptional. It’s part of what makes us great.

We just finished, worldwide, the hottest year on record. Those are facts no amount of climate change denial can alter.

We have a choice in this country. We can continue to feed climate disaster by anchoring our future in the fossil fuels of the past, or we can protect future generations from the ravages of climate change by investing in the clean energy solutions of tomorrow.

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Earth’s hottest year, and GOP doesn’t get it

Effects of global warming around the world

Story highlights