Climate Change | Facts and Sources

Click on any fact below to see the source page.

“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” – President Obama

WikiHow is letting us know how we can do our part in helping to save the environment. Below are a few tips on how to save the environment while shopping:

Bring your own bags, preferably cloth or string
Choose paper over plastic, for if you were to ever use a store bag, paper is easier to recycle than plastic
Think of the packaging of items
Visit the local farmers’ market
Join a co-op
Go shopping with a friend
Look for green “Environmentally Friendly” tags on the items you buy
Visit Thrift Shops
Make a shopping list to avoid buying things that seem appealing but you will likely never use
Recycle – even at the restaurant
Compost – making a compost bin for all your food waste cuts down on what goes to the landfill, and it can be used for your garden.

For more tips on how to help in saving the environment, please click HERE.

U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed. – The New York Times has the following facts about how Emissions are still affecting our air at an alarming rate:

America’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4% in 2018. This is the biggest increase in 8 years.
Emissions from the nation’s industrial sectors – steel, cement, chemicals, and refineries – increased by 5.7% in 2018.
Policymakers working on climate change have so far largely shied away from regulating the heavy industry, which directly contributes about 1/6 of the country’s carbon emissions. Instead, they’ve focused on decarbonizing the electricity sector through actions like promoting wind and solar power.
Estimates show that the overlooked industrial sector is on track to become the second-biggest source of emissions in California by 2020, behind only to transportation, and the biggest source in Texas by 2022.

For more information and to read the full article, please click HERE.

The NYTimes Magazine has the following facts about the alarming rate our climate is changing and what it means for the future:

The world has warmed more than one degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.
o   If warmed up to two degrees, we would see the extinction of the world’s tropical reefs, sea-level rise of several meters, and the abandonment of the Persian Gulf.
o   Three-degree warming is a prescription for forests in the Arctic and the loss of most coastal cities.
o   Four degrees: Europe would be in permanent drought; vast areas of China, India and Bangladesh claimed by desert; Polynesia swallowed by the sea; the Colorado River thinned to a trickle; and the American Southwest largely uninhabitable.
o   The prospect of a five-degree warming has prompted some of the world’s leading climate scientists to warn of the end of human civilization.
The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet. And every year, by burning coal, oil and gas, humankind belched increasingly obscene quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

We have lost the opportunity to save our planet from the Two-degree warming. Can we save the planet from warming even further? Please click HERE for the stories of the scientists that tried to warn us and how planet is in a dangerous crisis.

Antarctica is Melting Three Times as Fast as a Decade Ago – An article in the NY Times shares the following facts about climate change:

Between 60 and 90 percent of the world’s fresh water is frozen in the ice sheets of Antarctica. If all that ice melted, it would be enough to raise the world’s sea levels by roughly 200 feet
The rate at which Antarctica is losing ice has tripled since 2007.
Between 1992 and 2017, Antarctica shed three trillion tons of ice. This has led to an increase in sea levels of roughly three-tenths of an inch. 40 percent of that increase came from the last five years of the study period, from 2012 to 2017.
The melting ice and warming waters have all been primarily driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Please click HERE to read the full article.

NASA’s website gives the following facts about the evidence of Climate Change:

Sea Level Rise – Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of last century.
Global Temperature Rise – The planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees degrees Celsius) since the late 19^th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years, with 16 of the 17 warmest years on record occurring since 2001. Not only was 2016 the warmest year on record, but eight of the 12 months that make up the year – from Jan-Sept, with the exception of June – were the warmest on record for those respective months.
Warming Oceans – The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.
Shrinking Ice Sheets – The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost 150 to 250 cubic kilometers (36 to 60 cubic miles) of ice per year between 2002 and 2006, while Antarctica lost about 152 cubic kilometers (36 cubic miles) of ice between 2002 and 2005.
Declining Arctic Sea Ice – Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.
Glacial Retreat – Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world – including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.
Extreme Events – The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.
Ocean Acidification – Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans. The amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by the upper layer of the oceans is increasing by 2 billion tons per year.
Decreased Snow Cover – Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.

Please click HERE to read more on NASA’s findings on Climate Change: The Evidence, Causes, Effects, and Solutions.

The NYTIMES.COM has an article that highlights the alarming statistics about how the Arctic sea has less ice at winter’s end.

The Arctic has less sea ice at winter’s end that ever before in nearly four decades of satellite measurements.
The extent of ice cover – a record low for the third straight year – is another indicator of the effects of global warming on the Arctic, a region that is among the hardest hit by climate change
Sea ice in the Arctic had reached maximum extent, of about 5.5 million square miles, on March 7. That is an area nearly twice the size of Australia, but about 470,000 square miles less than the average maximum from 1981 to 2010.
Late fall of 2016, parts of the Arctic were more than 35 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than observed averages, and at the pole itself, mean temperatures for November were 23 degrees above normal.
The melting of sea ice does not raise sea levels, but loss of ice coverage can disrupt ecosystems. For example, it can affect the timing of blooms of phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain.

Please click HERE for more information and to read the full article.

Time.com shares the facts that Badlands National Park has been posting via its Twitter account that might contradict the beliefs of President Donald Trump’s administration:

Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years – posted 1/24/17
Burning one gallon of gasoline puts nearly 20lbs of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere – posted 1/24/17
Flipside of the atmosphere; ocean acidity has increased 30% since the Industrial Revolution – posted 1/24/17
The pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm). As of Dec. 2016, 404.93 ppm – posted 1/24/17

These posts were later removed from the twitter account. Please click HERE to read the full story on Time.com.

The National Wildlife Federation gives us the following information on how climate change is affecting the world.

The United States is the second largest contributor to CO₂ in our atmosphere, though it is home to just 4.4 percent of the world’s population. If everyone in the world lived the way people do in the U.S., it would take four Earths to provide enough resources for everyone.
The amount of carbon dioxide emitted per capita in the United States is 16.4 metric tons (almost 40 pounds per person).
Burning one gallon of gasoline puts 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Average sea level is expected to rise 1 – 6 feet before the end of this century
In 1910 Glacier National Park was home to more an estimated 150 glaciers. That number has now shrunk to 25 as of December 2016. This national park is expected to eventually lose all its glaciers. This is only one example of glacial melt that is occurring all over the world.
The current pace of global average temperature rise puts approximately 25 to 35 percent of plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction.
Rain forest destruction contributes to climate change. That’s because trees store carbon dioxide as they grow. Clearing and burning forests releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The world’s coral reefs are in the midst of a global mass die off. As of 2015, coral bleaching is impacted 40% of the world’s coral reefs, killing over 4,630 square miles of reefs.

Please click Here for more information and to find out how you can make a difference.

Bloomberg has a wonderful series that is called Big Problems. Big Thinkers. The first episode addresses the problem of Climate Change and how it is affecting our lives and our future. This episode gives us the following facts:

The population of the world has increased 3.5 times in the last 70 years, from a little over 2 billion people to over 7 billion people.
The rapid population growth is causing our non-renewable resources to be used up faster and the effects of those resources to be growing in a negative pattern
The short-term consequences of our use of non-renewable resources are higher medical expenses, more costs to business owners and building owners, etc.
The long-term consequences of our non-renewable resource use is that we will run out and humanity will be on the brink of extinction
In December 2015 at the COP21 conference in Paris, a major turning point happened when 195 nations committed, for the first time, to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
440 cities across the U.S. signed a mayoral agreement to provide annual reports on air pollution and environmental data
The U.S. has closed a little over 200 of the 500+ coal power plants as a response to the public’s protest and demand for cleaner air and living conditions
Modeling says that 13,000 people have been dying from the effects of these power plants per year
By closing nearly half of the power plants, the U.S. is literally saving about 7,000 lives per year

Please click HERE to watch the full episode and learn how you as an individual can make a difference in saving this planet and, ultimately, humanity.

Time.com gives us a wonderful resource to figure out how Climate Change is Affecting the World Around You:

A new App called Field Notes – Earth shows you how climate change is happening in your own backyard
It is made for iPhone and Android
It is also available in a desktop version which is available Here

You can click HERE to read the full article on Time.com and find out how you can get accurate, real-time data about climate change in your neighborhood.

Time.com gives us the shocking facts below about how Americans view climate change:

Only 16% of Americans believe there is not enough evidence to prove global climate change is real, the lowest percentage since a survey began asking the question in 2008
70% of U.S. residents believe evidence supporting global warning. That’s a 7 percentage point increase over the spring of 2015 and 10 percentage point increase from last fall.
President Obama has said he hopes to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by up to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025.
The extreme weather over the past few years have spiked interest and belief in climate change, which has caused policymakers to place a renewed focus on addressing the issue

Please click HERE to see the full article.

Antarctic Ozone Layer Shows Signs of Healing – Time.com

The discovery suggests man made environmental damage can be healed
The hole in the ozone layer is closing
Researchers found that the average size of the ozone hole when measured in September has shrunk by more than 1.7 million square miles since 2000

Click Here to read the full article and discover what is allowing this healing to take place.

Time.com gives us the following facts about how Climate Change is Fueling a Rise in Shark Attacks:

Shark attacks are on the rise in the U.S. – but it’s not because sharks are getting fiercer.
59 attacks last year, up from 31 in 2011 – is connected to climate change, experts say
Climate Change is pushing sharks and other marine species northward.
At the same time, warm weather means people are more likely to go swimming
The number of tourists in Florida, where the most shark attacks take place, has risen every year since 2009, to 106 million last year. Meanwhile there has also been a gradual increase in the number of sharks in the water

Click Here to read the full article and get more details of why more tourists and more sharks is a dangerous combination.

Nytimes.com article – Wildfires, Once Confined to a Season, Burn Earlier and Longer:

New Mexico has had 140 fires this year, double the number in the same period last year, fueled by one of the warmest, driest winters on record.
On the border of Arizona and California this month, helicopters dumped water on flames so intense that they jumped the Colorado River, forcing the evacuation of two recreational vehicle parks.
They have ignited in the West during the winter and well into the fall, have arrived earlier than ever in Canada and have burned without interruption in Australia for almost 12 months.
A leading culprit is climate change. Drier winters mean less moisture on the land, and warmer springs are pulling the moisture into the air more quickly, turning shrub, brush and grass into kindling.
Today’s forests are not just parched; they are overgrown.
The 10.1 million acres that burned in the United States last year were the most on record, and the top five years for acres burned were in the past decade. The federal costs of fighting fires rose to $2 billion last year, up from $240 million in 1985.

Click Here to read the full article on how climate change is effecting the burn season.

If the Himalayan glaciers disappear. hundreds of millions of people dependent on glacier rivers will be deprived of the water they use to grow their crops. – The Most Good You Can Do by Peter Singer

Some land in California’s Central Valley is sinking as by as much as 2 in. per month as water is pumped out of the ground to serve the state during its historic drought, according to new research. – Time Magazine, August 19, 2015

Now do you believe in global warming? – Time Magazine

Hydrocarbons-oil, natural gas, and coal- provide over 80% of today’s total energy, and overall energy demand is expected to increase by as much as 40% over the next two decades. – Time Magazine

Endless summer. The record heat is a taste of how the climate change can play out – Time Magazine

Global Warming Fast Facts – National Geographic

Saguaros,emblems of the desert, now claim higher ground – Arizona Daily Star News

An Inconvenient Truth: An Inspirational Documentary on the Fight Against Global Warming | TakePart Earth in the Balance – Al Gore.com

The Climate War (2010) – Eric Pooley: A Personal Blog

Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why we Need a Green Revolution – The New York Times Foreign Affairs Columnist

Mount Agung Eruption Provides a Test of Global Climatic Perturbation – NASA

Climate change skepticism – The Guardian

New research indicates the impact of rising CO₂ levels in the Earth’s atmosphere will cause unstoppable effects to the climate for at least the next 1000 years, causing researchers to estimate a collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet by the year 3000, and an eventual rise in the global sea level of at least four meters. – Phys.org

Average sea level worldwide is projected to rise up to two feet by the end of this century. This rise would eliminate approximately 10,000 square miles of land in the United States. – United States Environmental Protection Agency

Click on any fact below to see the source page.

“No challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change.” – President Obama

WikiHow is letting us know how we can do our part in helping to save the environment. Below are a few tips on how to save the environment while shopping:

Bring your own bags, preferably cloth or string

Choose paper over plastic, for if you were to ever use a store bag, paper is easier to recycle than plastic

Think of the packaging of items

Visit the local farmers’ market

Join a co-op

Go shopping with a friend

Look for green “Environmentally Friendly” tags on the items you buy

Visit Thrift Shops

Make a shopping list to avoid buying things that seem appealing but you will likely never use

Recycle – even at the restaurant

Compost – making a compost bin for all your food waste cuts down on what goes to the landfill, and it can be used for your garden.

For more tips on how to help in saving the environment, please click HERE.

U.S. Carbon Emissions Surged in 2018 Even as Coal Plants Closed. – The New York Times has the following facts about how Emissions are still affecting our air at an alarming rate:

America’s carbon dioxide emissions rose by 3.4% in 2018. This is the biggest increase in 8 years.

Emissions from the nation’s industrial sectors – steel, cement, chemicals, and refineries – increased by 5.7% in 2018.

Policymakers working on climate change have so far largely shied away from regulating the heavy industry, which directly contributes about 1/6 of the country’s carbon emissions. Instead, they’ve focused on decarbonizing the electricity sector through actions like promoting wind and solar power.

Estimates show that the overlooked industrial sector is on track to become the second-biggest source of emissions in California by 2020, behind only to transportation, and the biggest source in Texas by 2022.

For more information and to read the full article, please click HERE.

The NYTimes Magazine has the following facts about the alarming rate our climate is changing and what it means for the future:

The more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet. And every year, by burning coal, oil and gas, humankind belched increasingly obscene quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

We have lost the opportunity to save our planet from the Two-degree warming. Can we save the planet from warming even further? Please click HERE for the stories of the scientists that tried to warn us and how planet is in a dangerous crisis.

Antarctica is Melting Three Times as Fast as a Decade Ago – An article in the NY Times shares the following facts about climate change:

Between 60 and 90 percent of the world’s fresh water is frozen in the ice sheets of Antarctica. If all that ice melted, it would be enough to raise the world’s sea levels by roughly 200 feet

The rate at which Antarctica is losing ice has tripled since 2007.

Between 1992 and 2017, Antarctica shed three trillion tons of ice. This has led to an increase in sea levels of roughly three-tenths of an inch. 40 percent of that increase came from the last five years of the study period, from 2012 to 2017.

The melting ice and warming waters have all been primarily driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Please click HERE to read the full article.

NASA’s website gives the following facts about the evidence of Climate Change:

Sea Level Rise – Global sea level rose about 8 inches in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of last century.

Warming Oceans – The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.302 degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

Declining Arctic Sea Ice – Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

Glacial Retreat – Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world – including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

Extreme Events – The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing, since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

Decreased Snow Cover – Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.

Please click HERE to read more on NASA’s findings on Climate Change: The Evidence, Causes, Effects, and Solutions.

The NYTIMES.COM has an article that highlights the alarming statistics about how the Arctic sea has less ice at winter’s end.

The Arctic has less sea ice at winter’s end that ever before in nearly four decades of satellite measurements.

The extent of ice cover – a record low for the third straight year – is another indicator of the effects of global warming on the Arctic, a region that is among the hardest hit by climate change

Sea ice in the Arctic had reached maximum extent, of about 5.5 million square miles, on March 7. That is an area nearly twice the size of Australia, but about 470,000 square miles less than the average maximum from 1981 to 2010.

Late fall of 2016, parts of the Arctic were more than 35 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than observed averages, and at the pole itself, mean temperatures for November were 23 degrees above normal.

The melting of sea ice does not raise sea levels, but loss of ice coverage can disrupt ecosystems. For example, it can affect the timing of blooms of phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms at the bottom of the ocean food chain.

Please click HERE for more information and to read the full article.

Time.com shares the facts that Badlands National Park has been posting via its Twitter account that might contradict the beliefs of President Donald Trump’s administration:

Today, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is higher than at any time in the last 650,000 years – posted 1/24/17

Burning one gallon of gasoline puts nearly 20lbs of carbon dioxide into our atmosphere – posted 1/24/17

Flipside of the atmosphere; ocean acidity has increased 30% since the Industrial Revolution – posted 1/24/17

The pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm). As of Dec. 2016, 404.93 ppm – posted 1/24/17

These posts were later removed from the twitter account. Please click HERE to read the full story on Time.com.

The National Wildlife Federation gives us the following information on how climate change is affecting the world.

The United States is the second largest contributor to CO2 in our atmosphere, though it is home to just 4.4 percent of the world’s population. If everyone in the world lived the way people do in the U.S., it would take four Earths to provide enough resources for everyone.

The amount of carbon dioxide emitted per capita in the United States is 16.4 metric tons (almost 40 pounds per person).

Burning one gallon of gasoline puts 19.64 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Average sea level is expected to rise 1 – 6 feet before the end of this century

In 1910 Glacier National Park was home to more an estimated 150 glaciers. That number has now shrunk to 25 as of December 2016. This national park is expected to eventually lose all its glaciers. This is only one example of glacial melt that is occurring all over the world.

The current pace of global average temperature rise puts approximately 25 to 35 percent of plant and animal species at increased risk of extinction.

Rain forest destruction contributes to climate change. That’s because trees store carbon dioxide as they grow. Clearing and burning forests releases large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The world’s coral reefs are in the midst of a global mass die off. As of 2015, coral bleaching is impacted 40% of the world’s coral reefs, killing over 4,630 square miles of reefs.

Please click Here for more information and to find out how you can make a difference.

Bloomberg has a wonderful series that is called Big Problems. Big Thinkers. The first episode addresses the problem of Climate Change and how it is affecting our lives and our future. This episode gives us the following facts:

The population of the world has increased 3.5 times in the last 70 years, from a little over 2 billion people to over 7 billion people.

The rapid population growth is causing our non-renewable resources to be used up faster and the effects of those resources to be growing in a negative pattern

The short-term consequences of our use of non-renewable resources are higher medical expenses, more costs to business owners and building owners, etc.

The long-term consequences of our non-renewable resource use is that we will run out and humanity will be on the brink of extinction

In December 2015 at the COP21 conference in Paris, a major turning point happened when 195 nations committed, for the first time, to lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

440 cities across the U.S. signed a mayoral agreement to provide annual reports on air pollution and environmental data

The U.S. has closed a little over 200 of the 500+ coal power plants as a response to the public’s protest and demand for cleaner air and living conditions

Modeling says that 13,000 people have been dying from the effects of these power plants per year

By closing nearly half of the power plants, the U.S. is literally saving about 7,000 lives per year

Please click HERE to watch the full episode and learn how you as an individual can make a difference in saving this planet and, ultimately, humanity.

Time.com gives us a wonderful resource to figure out how Climate Change is Affecting the World Around You:

A new App called Field Notes – Earth shows you how climate change is happening in your own backyard

It is made for iPhone and Android

It is also available in a desktop version which is available Here

You can click HERE to read the full article on Time.com and find out how you can get accurate, real-time data about climate change in your neighborhood.

Time.com gives us the shocking facts below about how Americans view climate change:

Only 16% of Americans believe there is not enough evidence to prove global climate change is real, the lowest percentage since a survey began asking the question in 2008

70% of U.S. residents believe evidence supporting global warning. That’s a 7 percentage point increase over the spring of 2015 and 10 percentage point increase from last fall.

The United States is the second largest contributor to CO₂ in our atmosphere, though it is home to just 4.4 percent of the world’s population. If everyone in the world lived the way people do in the U.S., it would take four Earths to provide enough resources for everyone.