Climate Change Occurring Ten Times Faster Than at Any Time in Past 65 Million Years

Not only is the planet undergoing one of the largest climate changes in the past 65 million years, scientists report that it's occurring at a rate 10 times faster than any change in that period.  Without intervention, this extreme pace could lead to a 5-6 degree Celsius spike in annual temperatures by the end of the century.

"We know from past changes that ecosystems have responded to a few degrees of global temperature change over thousands of years," said Stanford climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh. "But the unprecedented trajectory that we're on now is forcing that change to occur over decades.  That's orders of magnitude faster, and we're already seeing that some species are challenged by that rate of change."

Climate Change Occurring Ten Times Faster Than at Any Time in Past 65 Million Years