Facts on Climate Change: Key Insights and Urgent Realities
There are many facts on climate change that you should be aware of.
Unfortunately, many of these facts on climate change are not well known and there is an incredible lack of awareness regarding this global issue.
From International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme
Reality vs. Fiction
- There is currently a scientific consensus on climate change and there has been one for many decades.
- Climate change is happening right now and the effects of climate change are without doubt, incontrovertible evidence of climate change
- The ten hottest years ever recorded all happened since 2010 and the hottest one of all was 2016.
- NASA declares that fluctuations in solar activity do not correlate with the rapid increase in global temperatures over the last few decades.
- A report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2007, which was based on the work of some 2,500 scientists in more than 130 countries, concluded that humans have caused most if not all of the current global warming.
Source: NASA (data from NOAA)
Statistics on the Scientific Consensus
- More specifically, the official scientific opinion on global warming is that it is occurring right now, and that it is more than 90% certain that human activities are causing it due to greenhouse gas emissions (according to the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report in 2007).
- Although the media will give the illusion that there is still a debate on climate change, 97-98% of climate scientists affirm the tenets of anthropogenic global warming (this data originates from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science which took into account 1,372 scientists). What is more, the study shows that the average expertise of the 2-3% who deny man-made climate change was much below that of their colleagues, based on both publication and citation rates.
Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: National Climatic Data Center
Facts on Climate Change Effects
- Since climate change will affect the biosphere, every single ecosystem and every single species therein will be affected in one way or another.
- As a matter of fact, more than a million species could face extinction.
- Climate change will cripple economies worldwide by causing several billions of dollars in damages from natural disasters such as droughts and hurricanes; sea levels arise could cause trillions of dollars in damages alone.
- A positive feedback effect could make global warming uncontrollable after a certain point.
Source: Skeptical Science
Direct Impact on Human Life
- Over 100 million people will die by 2030 if we do not collectively take action now. Afterwards, the death toll will be even more severe.
- Diseases such as malaria and dengue fever have spread to new locations, with new cases happening even in the United States.
- The 2003 heat wave in Europe caused over 30,000 deaths.
- At least one hundred million people live within 1 meter (about 3 feet) of average sea level, and a large part of the world's population is concentrated in vulnerable coastal cities.
Source: NASA
Rapid Melting Worldwide
- Scientists predict that a 1 meter sea level rise is well in the range of possibilities. This sea level rise is due to both thermal expansion of water as well as melting ice (land ice in Greenland and Antarctica mostly). One estimate is that the range of sea level rise may be between 0.3 and 2.5 meters, depending on how much climate mitigation is done.
- The Arctic could become ice free by as early as 2035 (Source).
- Worldwide, glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting. Not only are there melting glaciers but the polar ice caps are melting too.
- The melting of glaciers will cause serious water shortages for people who depend on them. It will also affect much of the world's agriculture, which relies on perennial rivers flowing from glaciers.
Source: World Glacier Monitoring Service
Some Like it Hot, The Ecosystem Not So Much
- Temperatures have risen by at least 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Carbon dioxide levels have reached at least 420 ppm (Source).
- In Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia, average temperatures have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report which was compiled between 2000 and 2004. Greenland and the Arctic are being even more affected.
- In the Northern Hemisphere, freezes begin a week later and thaws come out a week earlier in spring.
- Coral reefs, which are very sensitive to even small changes in water temperature, have been severely affected. Coral reefs are affected by ocean acidification. Coral reefs are not just pretty; they play a vital role in the ocean's ecosystems. When they bleach, the entire marine food chain will be ultimately affected.
Source: IPCC Fourth Assessment Report on Climate Change in 2007
Facts on Climate Change Mitigation
- Despite large talks on alternative energy, there are several ways in which you can help stop climate change that are not limited to solar power, wind power, etc...
- We currently have the technology available to combat abrupt climate change; the only thing missing is political will which is fortunately, a renewable resource.
- Although skeptics will say that climate change adaptation will hurt the economy, the truth is that prevention will be far better than reparation.
- The Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accord were established in order to help combat the current planetary warming. Both treaties had over 100 participants. However, there are downsides to both and future treaties will be formed in order to address these issues. The biggest one recently was the Paris Climate Agreement.
Source: World Energy Outlook
Miscellaneous
- The idea of the greenhouse effect is over a century old (see history).
- There is a difference between climate change and global warming, despite the two terms being used interchangeably by the media. The former term is the more accurate and scientific one as it includes changes in sea levels, precipitation, and wind patterns.
- China and the United States are the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide worldwide.
- Canada is the only country to have backed out of the Kyoto Protocol and the United States temporarily left the Paris Climate Agreement under the Trump Administration but re-entered promptly under the Biden Administration.
- Every major environmental disaster, including the tar sands in Alberta, deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest, or the Great Pacific Garbage Patch are contributing in some way or another to global warming.
- In 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to both Al Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
Spreading Awareness: A Moral Duty
In a world where mass media is often unreliable, please take note of the important facts on climate change mentioned above.
Nowadays, there is a plethora of disinformation regarding this important issue at hand. Unfortunately, many people have not heard of the real facts on climate change listed in this page.
If we are to find a way to solve the climate crisis, we need to not only collaborate in taking action, but we need to join forces in spreading awareness on mankind's greatest challenge.
Please, take the time to share this crucial information.
Millions of lives and over a million species are a stake. Choosing to make climate change mitigation a number priority is not merely a political choice; rather, it is a moral duty.
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