The Earth’s surface has undergone unprecedented warming over the last century, particularly over the last two decades. Every single year since 1992 is in the current list of the 20 warmest years on record.
Experts agree that human activity is to blame for the overabundance of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which trap the sun’s heat and warm the planet too much.
The consensus is that Global Warming is already causing trouble on this planet, and it’s just getting started (or getting warmed up, if you will… for pun’s-sake).
Watch this short internet film primer on climate change developed by Global Green with board member Leonardo DiCaprio and Tree Media. This film has been featured at numerous film festivals and special screenings.
Greenhouse gases are generated and released into the air when fossil fuels—oil, coal and gas—are burned. We pump obscene quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every day, because fossil fuel burning is behind the scenes of so much of what we do. Fuels are burned so that we can drive, heat our homes, and have an electricity supply that satisfies our demand.
Over the last century, the planet’s average surface temperature has risen by about one degree Fahrenheit. That may not sound like much, but consider the fact that it just took four degrees to shift us out of the last ice age.
The following is an excerpt from The Changing Climate: How worried you should be—an article written by Grist.org’s Chip Giller and Katharine Wroth.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—created in 1988 by the United Nations and the World Meteorological Organization—has estimated that the Earth’s average temperature will rise between 2.5 and 10.4 degrees by the year 2100. The oft-used phrase “global warming” suggests that the world will roast, but the changes in store are more complex. The added heat will throw the whole system out of whack. We’re in for heat waves and droughts, yes, but also cold snaps, floods, severe storms, and the spread of infectious diseases. As [Al] Gore puts it, the whole scenario is like “what someone has called ‘a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.’”
The panoply of possibilities, all those “coulds” and “mights,” is another reason doubters like to doubt. But this unfolding story is not all hypothetical. It’s happening now. In the far north, Inuit hunters have fallen through ice, and villages have lost ground to swelling seas. In the tropics, deluged islanders are making plans for permanent evacuation. In Europe and India, heat waves have killed thousands. Climate-change models predicted these kinds of developments.
If that all sounds far from home, consider Hurricane Katrina. When it first reached Florida, it was a Category 1 storm. While traveling across the warmer-than-usual surface of the Gulf of Mexico, it brewed itself into a Category 5 then actually weakened to a Category 3 before causing the destruction still so fresh in our minds. Why were the Gulf’s waters warmer than usual? You guessed it—and models had forecast this type of change, too.
For a Canada-centric take on the anticipated impacts of Global Warming, check out what the David Suzuki Foundation has to say.
The good news is that the situation is not beyond repair. The solution is clear. We have to scale back our dependence on fossil fuels. We have to start using energy more efficiently, and stepping up our uses of renewable energy sources. We have to drive less often and have zero tolerance for idling. We have to consume less, so that fuels aren’t burned to manufacture and transport products that we don’t really need.
For some more interesting reading, check out The Union of Concerned Scientists and Grist.com: How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic. And if you haven’t yet seen Al Gore’s feature film An inconvenient Truth, click here to watch the trailer.
Tags: climate change, climate crisis, penguins
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On Thursday the 8th of November, 2007 at 11:55 am, Lexi said:
On Thursday the 8th of November, 2007 at 2:35 pm, nazanin gholami said:
i on’t have any special to say
On Thursday the 20th of December, 2007 at 6:12 pm, kerri bartels said:
i am very happy to see this website
it is a great resource for kids diong projects and just learning for everyone
i first learned about this website at the royal agricultural winter fair in toronto
it was really neat when they would actualy take you through like a kitchen to show you all the things you could change to be environmentally friendly
i appreciate all your hard work and hope that my life also changes to be friendly to the envoronment too.
thanks for all your help
not just to me but to others too
im sure their glad this is here
On Thursday the 20th of December, 2007 at 6:14 pm, kerri bartels said:
i used the article for my science report!!
boo ya
awesome stuff
On Wednesday the 30th of January, 2008 at 10:41 pm, Arlo said:
Jess, I’m glad that only four people have read this report. I must say with all due respect that you are misinformed. Please read some more about the topic from the “other” side*. It’s all about balance. As a government funded website you owe all of your readers full disclosure on major topics.
Arlo
*Such as:
On Tuesday the 23rd of September, 2008 at 11:54 pm, Eric Goodwin said:
Very good outline of what is happening and who is doing something about it. Too little, too late.
The governments need to stop handing out money to General Motors and start forcing renewable energy technologies on the wasters, the suppliers of instant gratification and useless junk we consume. Give the money to those people who will save the planet and tax the heck out of those who maintain the insanity. Nothing will change. Disaster, a relative term, will be the only answer to change. War over resources will be the topic of the day soon, and we will forget our petty problems… no gas to fill my SUV. Alberta and Saskathewan have a huge target painted on their backs… good luck with that, Although they are upwind from my home province of Ontario. Doh, to the human race.
On Tuesday the 9th of December, 2008 at 5:27 pm, Sean said:
--"The consensus is that Global Warming is already causing trouble on this planet, and it’s just getting started...--
I’m sorry, I couldn’t read any further. “Consensus” does not equal Science, any way you slice it. I have a consensus among my friends (experts on “me") that says I ought to have a million dollar job. Unfortunately a Consensus on anything is just like-minded individuals agreeing. There is nothing scientific about it. Let’s have some testable assertions, <gasp> ACTUALLY TEST THEM, and then we’ll see what’s what.
Thanks
S
On Wednesday the 6th of May, 2009 at 11:01 am, Consuella B. said:
This site is great! lololol
On Wednesday the 23rd of December, 2009 at 3:15 pm, John said:
i used the article for my science report!!
boo ya
awesome stuff
hernia symptoms
On Sunday the 14th of February, 2010 at 3:20 pm, Eve said:
This is a government website. Surely there is a law saying the content must be true? The IPCC has been shown to be a fraud. Their summaries include alarmist data taken from non peer reviewed papers and from Greenpeace, the WWF, etc. The interview with Phil Jones, former head of the CRU shows that:
Neither the rate nor magnitude of recent warming is exceptional.
There was no significant warming from 1998-2009. According to the IPCC we should have seen a global temperature increase of at least 0.2°C per decade.
The IPCC models may have overestimated the climate sensitivity for greenhouse gases, underestimated natural variability, or both.
This also suggests that there is a systematic upward bias in the impacts estimates based on these models just from this factor alone.
The logic behind attribution of current warming to well-mixed man-made greenhouse gases is faulty.
The science is not settled, however unsettling that might be.
There is a tendency in the IPCC reports to leave out inconvenient findings, especially in the part(s) most likely to be read by policy makers.
I used this article for a homework assignment. It was very helpful.
Good work G.