The subsystems of Earth are not independent from each other but are interacting in many ways. The biosphere is strongly influenced by the water from the hydrosphere, the paths of the water depend on the landscapes, and so on.
Climate change is among the most important issues for the coming generations and cannot be related to one of the subsystems, but is an overarching theme involving all subsystems to some degree. Due to these facts climate change is addressed in a separate section here.
Themes
- Large scale phenomena – El Nino/La Nina
- Temperature anomalies – long-term trends over land and sea
- Sea level rise – global and local views
- Retreating glaciers
- Retreating sea ice – Arctic
- Retreating ice shields – Antarctica, Greenland
- Changing atmospheric composition – greenhouse gasses
- Changing atmospheric composition – aerosols
