Global Warming - Fast Facts

• 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.

Global Worming Causes

World View of Global Warming is an independent documentary project by photojournalist Gary Braasch, now in its 11th year, presenting a comprehensive look at global warming science, the world wide effects of climate change, its implications, and what action is being taken about it. Braasch documents this change through science reporting and photography from the Arctic to Antarctica, from glaciers to the oceans. Rapid climate change is occurring now and its effects are fast becoming one of the prime events of the 21st century.

What Causes Global Warming?

Scientists have spent decades figuring out what is causing global warming. They've looked at the natural cycles and events that are known to influence climate. But the amount and pattern of warming that's been measured can't be explained by these factors alone. The only way to explain the pattern is to include the effect of greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted by humans.To bring all this information together, the United Nations formed a group of scientists called the International Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC. The IPCC meets every few years to review the latest scientific findings and write a report summarizing all that is known about global warming. Each report represents a consensus, or agreement, among hundreds of leading scientists.

One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.

Different greenhouse gases have very different heat-trapping abilities. Some of them can even trap more heat than CO2. A molecule of methane produces more than 20 times the warming of a molecule of CO2. Nitrous oxide is 300 times more powerful than CO2. Other gases, such as chlorofluorocarbons (which have been banned in much of the world because they also degrade the ozone layer), have heat-trapping potential thousands of times greater than CO2. But because their concentrations are much lower than CO2, none of these gases adds as much warmth to the atmosphere as CO2 does.

Most Causes of Global Warming

1. Carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants
2. Carbon dioxide emissions from burning gasoline for transportation
3. Methane emissions from animals, agriculture such as rice paddies, and from Arctic seabeds
4. Deforestation, especially tropical forests for wood, pulp, and farmland
5. Increase in usage of chemical fertilizers on croplands
6. Rise in sea levels worldwide
7. More killer storms
8. Massive crop failures
9. Widespread extinction of species
10. Disappearance of coral reefs

Causes of Global Warming

Scientists have determined that a number of human activities are contributing to global warming by adding excessive amounts of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide accummulate in the atmosphere and trap heat that normally would exit into outer space.

Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

While many greenhouse gases occur naturally and are needed to create the greenhouse effect that keeps the Earth warm enough to support life, human use of fossil fuels is the main source of excess greenhouse gases. By driving cars, using electricity from coal-fired power plants, or heating our homes with oil or natural gas, we release carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere. Deforestation is another significant source of greenhouse gases, because fewer trees means less carbon dioxide conversion to oxygen.

The Consequences of Global Warming

As the concentration of greenhouse gases grows, more heat is trapped in the atmosphere and less escapes back into space. This increase in trapped heat changes the climate and alters weather patterns, which may hasten species extinction, influence the length of seasons, cause coastal flooding, and lead to more frequent and severe storms.

How Do You Contribute?

If you want to help stop global warming, you have to understand how your actions are causing it. The main causes of global warming, in order of the magnitude of their impact, are:

Carbon Dioxide from:

• Fossil Fuel
• Deforestation
• Failing Sinks

Methane from:

• Cattle and Rice Paddies
• the Artic Tundra
• Clathrates

Nitrogen Oxides from Farming
Other Gases