"That’s not to say every last corner of Earth is losing its vegetation. Some recent studies have revealed that parts of the Arctic are “greening” as the chilly landscape warms. And there’s increasing plant growth still happening in other regions of the world, as well."
So, a sensationalist headline. The H20 on Earth doesn't change, it might shift to other areas, like has for billions of years. Climate change or not we've always had shifting biomes, which is why we've got deserts in areas now that were essentially jungles in the past.
Actually, it is quite alarming if the Arctic is turning green. That itself is sensationalist. One of the primary ways our planet cools itself is by reflecting heat back into space. A white arctic is very efficient at reflecting heat. Green is not so good at that.
In terms of shifting biomes -- there used to be alligators that lived in the arctic. We seem determined to make that possible again. Such a world would be drastically different than the one we live in now. Such possibilities are indeed alarming.
It actually does. That is the whole premise behind global warming. CO2 alone would not be able to warm up the planet more than 1C - and that is if we keep burning fuels at max rate with no reduction.
The idea is that the 1C warming will cause the hotter air to support more water vapor, and water vapor is a much more potent gas than CO2, so it will warm the Earth additionally 2-3 or even 4C if we don't stop the CO2 emissions. This is the positive feedback loop. There are other feedback loops - some are negative and work towards decreasing the impact, for example the greening of the planet: if plants have more CO2, they will grow faster, bigger and be more resilient to drought, so they will absorb more CO2 overall.
If the "idea" above wouldn't be true, there would be no global warming crisis.
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So, a sensationalist headline. The H20 on Earth doesn't change, it might shift to other areas, like has for billions of years. Climate change or not we've always had shifting biomes, which is why we've got deserts in areas now that were essentially jungles in the past.