ShmoopTube

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[Dino and Coop singing]

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Each year, when winter turns to spring and the weather grows warmer, people everywhere

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celebrate by doing things that seem totally nuts: [Ice cream van]

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Riding funny-shaped boards on scary-huge ocean waves... [Man surfing]

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Putting on ridiculous-looking goggles and oversized rubber socks in order to stare at [Girl diving]

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a bunch of fish...

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And sliding half-naked down colorful plastic tubes with the express purpose of crash-landing [Boy riding a water slide]

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at the end.

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Man…what a strange species we are…

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But while the weather getting warmer each year is generally seen as a good thing, the [Girl at an ice cream stand]

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climate getting warmer overall certainly isn't.

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And sure, it doesn't seem that much hotter each summer, but that doesn't mean climate [Thermometer showing a high temperature]

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change isn't happening.

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Scientists are finding evidence of it all over the place, and rising temperatures seem [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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to be a new trend…

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And unlike Pokémon Go, this is a trend we're not super excited about… [Someone playing Pokemon Go on their phone]

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But what exactly is all of this evidence they're finding?

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Well, for starters, polar ice is melting at a rapid rate.

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It's also getting hotter in cold places, and drier in places that are usually wet. [River dries to sand]

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Sounds like future waterslide adventures will be pretty painful. [Boy slides into sand]

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There are also more severe storms, hurricanes and tornadoes now than we've seen in the past [Satellite view of a hurricane]

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100 years.

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So, yup…there's been a lot of strange and unusual things that have been observed in

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recent years.

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And these changes don't just impact the Earth itself…they impact humans and animals, too. [Dino pointing at a blackboard]

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Because surprisingly enough, neither of us like the idea of a tornado ripping through [Tornado takes a house into the air]

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our homes.

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Go figure.

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But these changes affect us in other smaller ways too.

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The melting ice causes the sea levels to rise, affecting the homes of those that live on

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islands and near the shore. [The water rises and a beach house floats away]

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And for some animals, the ice is where they call home. [Polar bears]

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So when it melts, their home melts, too. [Polar bears stranded on an ice berg]

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Another downside to the ice melting is that it allows the waters to grow warmer – because

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while ice usually reflects the rays of the sun, the water absorbs it. [The ice reflecting rays]

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Many animals require the water to be cold to survive, so as it heats up, things start

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to look…a little bleak.

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Between the giant storms, the rising water levels and the loss of homes for both humans [Fish on the water surface]

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and animals, it should be fairly obvious that climate change isn't exactly a good thing [Coop pointing at a blackboard]

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And if you're not totally convinced, just ask these penguins.

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That is…if you can manage to squeeze onto that block of ice….man, this feels like [Iceberg full of penguins]

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Titanic all over again… [Man holding onto the iceberg slips and falls under the water]

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