Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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MPR News' Kerri Miller is joined by MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner and John Abraham to look back at a year of climate news and answer your questions about climate change and its impact. 

• How would rising ocean levels affect the Great Lakes? 


Not so much direct impact, but the changes to precipitation rates, ice coverage and evaporation could have a real effect. 


A wavy jet stream and the larger Siberian snow pack cause a higher chance of a polar vortex. 
 


Greenland and Antarctica are melting, and recent surveys have indicated that the 

. The conservative estimates predict a 3-foot rise in ocean levels, and according to Abraham more than 150 million people live on land within 3 feet of ocean level. 

• Why is climate change different from other pollution problems?


With other pollution problems, we can see the results of our actions directly; when emissions change, we can directly observe  reductions in smoggy days. Climate changes do not show easily visible results in a time frame we might notice. Climate changes are akin to a train: slow to start, carries lots of inertia, and very slow to stop once it gets going. 


Ocean acidification occurs when carbon dioxide in the atmosphere dissolves into the oceans, producing 

, which increases the acidity of the ocean. The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the more acidic the oceans become. That makes it hard for shell-producing animals to make their shells. Since those creatures make up a large part of the base of the food chain, stress on those populations could dramatically affect other animals up the food chain. 

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MPR News' Kerri Miller is joined by MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner and Dr. John Abraham to look back at a year of climate news

MPR News' Kerri Miller is joined by MPR meteorologist Paul Huttner and Dr. John Abraham to look back at a year of climate news.

Climate Cast at the fair: Year in review

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