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These Adelie penguins in Antarctica are really on thin ice. Global warming is causing more ice floes like these to melt. It is also causing the Adelie penguin population to fall.
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from Time for Kids, April 27, 2001
from Meltdown!
by Ritu Upadhyay
The world is feeling the
heat of global warming.
 The famous American writer Ernest Hemingway was  awed by the beauty of Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. The snowcapped peak rises 19,340 feet above hot, tropical Tanzania. Hemingway wrote that it was “as wide as all the world, great, high, and unbelievable white in the sun.” But this natural wonder is in trouble. Each year there is less snow. In 15 years, scientists say, the snows of Kilimanjaro will simply melt away.
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Kilimanjaro is not the only place that is threatened. Glaciers and polar ice are melting. Coral reefs are dying as the seas get too warm. Lakes and rivers in colder climates are freezing later and thawing earlier each year, disrupting the life cycles of native plants and animals. What is causing this breakdown in nature?
A report issued by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) last month says the world has warmed up. Average temperatures climbed more than 1°F over the past century, and the 1990s were the hottest decade on record. By 2100, the IPCC predicts, the average temperature on the earth will be between 2.5°F and 10.4°F hotter than it is today.
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A degree or two may sound like a tiny change, but the consequences can be terrible. As glaciers and polar ice melt, low-lying coastal areas such as southern Louisiana and Florida; Venice, Italy; and parts of India and Egypt could be flooded or submerged. Higher temperatures could cause widespread drought and violent storms around the world.
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From "Meltdown!" by Ritu Upadhyay from Time for Kids, April 27, 2001. Copyright © 2001 by Time, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Time for Kids Magazine.
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