"We are undergoing unprecedented extinctions right now where many populations of amphibians throughout the world are disappearing," said Andrew Blaustein.
Russell Schnell said that if countries set requirements to cut carbon dioxide emissions, NOAA's observatories would serve as a kind of atmospheric fact checker.
"In Africa we have a special concern about abrupt climate change," said atmospheric scientist Kerry Cook, "because we know from the records of past climate that it’s possible for climate to change abruptly in this region."
It's correct that water vapor is the most important greenhouse gas, says Dessler, but "it's not correct to think that therefore carbon dioxide is not important."
He pointed out that plastics have been around for less than 100 years. In that short time span, no group of microorganisms has evolved that is capable of biodegrading plastics.