Global Warming: Quick Facts

• The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that the average surface temperature of the earth increased nearly1.4 F in the 20th century, due primarily to human caused global warming.
• The IPCC projects a 3.2-7.2 degrees Fahrenheit in the 21st century, depending upon the extent to which global warming pollution is dramatically reduced.
• Global warming means far more than hotter temperatures. Left unchecked, global warming will rapidly and irreparably disrupt our planet's climate system, causing average temperatures and precipitation patterns to change and exacerbating weather extremes such as heat waves, heavy downpours, storms, and droughts.
• On average, eleven of the past twelve years (1995-2006) rank among the twelve warmest years on record since 1850, and the increase in average temperature is expected to accelerate in the coming decades.
• Scientists project major changes in the character of precipitation across the United States, with a significant increase in the intensity of precipitation events and either increases or decreases in their duration and frequency, depending on the region. Recent studies also show a significant trend toward stronger, more frequent, and longer lasting heat waves across most of the country before the end of this century. It may seem counterintuitive, but these changes will lead to more flooding as well as to more droughts.
• In many western states, global warming is expected to contribute to a considerable reduction in average snowpack and earlier, more rapid spring snowmelt, which will lead to more wintertime flooding and decreased summertime water supply in major river basins.
• Global warming is causing sea levels around the world to rise at an unprecedented rate due to a combination of thermal expansion of the oceans and rapidly melting glaciers and polar ice caps. The average sea level is expected to rise 7 - 23 inches before the end of this century, and perhaps as much as 31 inches over that time if the rate of ice melt from Greenland and Antarctica increases as some models predict.
• The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia, according to a number of climate studies. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.
• The Arctic is feeling the effects the most. Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.
• Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier. Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.
• Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere, thaws also come a week earlier in spring and freezes begin a week later.
• Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching - or die-off in response to stress -ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent. Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.
• An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.
• The report, based on the work of some 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused all or most of the current planetary warming.
• Human-caused global warming is often called anthropogenic climate change.
• Industrialization, deforestation, and pollution have greatly increased atmospheric concentrations of water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, all greenhouse gases that help trap heat near Earth's surface. (See an interactive feature on how global warming works.)
• Humans are pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere much faster than plants and oceans can absorb it.
• These gases persist in the atmosphere for years, meaning that even if such emissions were eliminated today, it would not immediately stop global warming.
• Some experts point out that natural cycles in Earth's orbit can alter the planet's exposure to sunlight, which may explain the current trend. Earth has indeed experienced warming and cooling cycles roughly every hundred thousand years due to these orbital shifts, but such changes have occurred over the span of several centuries. Today's changes have taken place over the past hundred years or less.
• Other recent research has suggested that the effects of variations in the sun's output are "negligible" as a factor in warming, but other, more complicated solar mechanisms could possibly play a role.
• 1 = Rank of 2006 as hottest year on record in the continental United States.
• 1 = Rank of America as top global warming polluter in the world.
• 20 Percent increase of America's carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since 1990.
• 15 Percent increase of America's carbon dioxide emissions forecasted by 2020 if we do not cap pollution.
• 80 Percent decrease in U.S. global warming pollution required by 2050 to prevent the worst consequences of global warming.
• 78 Number of days by which the US fire season has increased over the past 20 years - tied closely to increased temperatures and earlier snowmelt.
• 200 million Number of people around the world who could be displaced by more intense droughts, sea level rise and flooding by 2080.
• 358 Number of U.S. mayors (representing 55 million Americans) who have signed the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement pledging to meet or beat Kyoto goals in their communities.
• 0 Number of federal bills passed to cap America's global warming pollution.
• 1 Number of times President Bush has mentioned "climate change" or "global warming" in his previous six State of the Union speeches.
• 100% Increase in intensity and duration of hurricanes and tropical storms since the 1970's, according to a 2005 MIT study.
• $100 billion Estimate of damage caused byhurricanes hitting the U.S. coast in 2005 alone, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
• 2030 Year by which Glacier National Park will have no glaciers left, according to the U.S. Geological Survey predictions.
• 400,000 Square miles of Arctic sea ice that have melted in the last 30 years (roughly the size of Texas), threatening polar bear habitats and further accelerating global warming worldwide, according to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.
• 15-37% Amount of plant and animal species that global warming could wipe out by 2050.
• 6 Number of former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leaders who say the U.S. is not doing enough to fight global warming.
• At the rate our climate is changing, the world will soon be warmer than at any time in th last 10,000 years.
• The world has warmed by 0.5 degC over the past century and an average 2 degC warming is predicted by 2100.
• There is scientific consensus that air pollution from human activities is partly responsible for global warming.
• Climatic changes will alter natural vegetation, wildlife habitats, crop growing seasons, and distribution of pests and diseases.
• Global warming will cause a continued and accelerated rise in sea levels, threatening half of the world's most critical coastal wetlands.
• A one-meter rise in sea level would threaten half of the world's coastal wetlands of international importance for their biodiversity.
• A 3 degC to 4 degC warming could eliminate up to 85% of the remaining wetlands in the semi-arid regions of southern Europe.
• The loss of wetlands in the flood plains of rivers in the African Sahel could make some local populations of turtles and birds extinct.
• A 3 degC to 4 degC warming could eliminate all open waters of the prairie pothole region in the US, an area where half of the wild duck population hatch out.
• About 30 new infectious diseases have emerged in the past 20 years.
• Global warming will expose millions of people to new health risks. Infectious diseases are emerging, resurging and undergoing redistribution on a global scale.
• Global sea level has risen between 10 to 25 cm in the last 100 years and will rise faster still in the coming decades.
• By the year 2050, up to one million additional deaths from malaria may be occurring annually as a result of climate change.
• The arctic is unusually important for migratory birds. An estimated 15% of the world's bird species are arctic specialists. In north america, 36 species breed only above 60 degN latitude.
• Ringed seals are the principal prey of polar bears. Unseasonal warming can lead to collapses of the snow caves where female seals bear their young. The young as yet have no blubber and die of exposure when cold conditions return. Scientists suspect that declines in seal populations will occur in this manner, and will ultimately lead to declines in polar bear populations.
• Detailed climate models suggest that a doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations will lead to a 30% reduction in the tundra available to Arctic species.
• Many of the world's most distinctive mammals are found only in the Arctic, including walrus, several species of seals, arctic foxes, collared lemmings, arctic and tundra hares, muskoxen, polar bears, mmarwhals and bowhead whales.
• As sea ice becomes thinner due to increased temperatures, animal intruders from the south, such as grizzly bears and moose, are penetrating north affecting local populations.
• Between 15 to 20% of the large nature reserves in southern reserves in southern Africa would experience a change in biome or habitat type under different climate change scenarios.
• Climatic changes will alter natural vegetation, wildlife habitats, crop growing seasons, and the distribution of pests and diseases.

• The industrial revolution, where humans developed machines (artificial animals, since they consume fuels, which are mostly organic matter), began in England about 240 years ago (1767).
• The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased gradually from a low of 190 ppm 21,000 year ago, to about 290 ppm in the year 1900, i.e., at an average rate of 0.00478 ppm per year.
• The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which was at 290 ppm in the year 1900, rose to 316 ppm in 1959, or at an average 0.44 ppm per year.
• The concentration of carbon dioxide has increased an average of about 1.8 ppm per year over the past two decades.
• The concentration of carbon dioxide increased 2.87 ppm in 1997-98, more than in any other year of record.
• Measurements of the concentration of carbon dioxide since 1959 (316 ppm) have revealed an increase to 378 ppm in 2004, or at an average 1.38 ppm per year.
• About 75% of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is due to the burning of fossil fuels.
• In October 1999, the world's population reached 6,000,000,000, which is double that of the year 1959 (the doubling occurred in 40 years).
• The world's population is currently increasing at the rate of about 80,000,000 per year (about 1.2 %).
• The current world population is 6,575,000,000 (February 2007).
• The global fleet of motor vehicles is estimated at 830,000,000 (2006).
• The global fleet of motor vehicles has been recently growing at the rate of 16,000,000 per year.
• Motor vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, and scooters) account for 80% of all transport-related energy use.