25 Facts about Global Warming

Global warming puts coral reefs in danger as the ocean warms, scientist fear that coral reefs will not be able to adapt quickly enough to the resulting changing conditions, and bleaching incidents and diseases will increase.

The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history. NASA reports that average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) since 1880.

Arctic sea ice coverage has shrunk every decade since 1979 by 3.5 to 4.1 percent. Glaciers have also been in retreat almost everywhere in the world.

Emissions like carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and other greenhouses gases will remain in the atmosphere for many years making impossible to eliminate global warming for several decades.

Average temperatures in Alaska, parts of Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average.

In the past 100 years, sea level has risen more than 5 inches, and is still rising.

Global warming research is primarily conducted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a partnership formed in 1998 with the World Meteorological Organization and environmental agencies of the United Nations.

According to the Internal Energy Agency, the world will invest some $20 trillion in new energy research over the next 25 years in an attempt to slow the effects of global warming.

There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point in the last 800,000 years.

The Montana Glacier National Park has only 25 glaciers instead of 150 that were there in the year 1910.

Global warming that is causing extreme weather changes has shown it implications in the way of forest fires, heat waves and severe tropical storms throughout the world.

About 20% of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere comes from the gasoline burned in motor vehicle engines. The vast majority of emitted CO2 is a result of fossil fuel burning in power plants for electricity generation.

Cars amount to three-quarters of all transportation emissions. At the current rate, the world will be driven on by more than a billion cars in 2030 and a billion more by 2050.

More than 1 million species have become extinct due to disappearing habitats, ecosystems acidic oceans all caused due to global warming.

The global warming will completely alter the ocean’s conveyor belt which will cause a mini ice age in the Europe.

Melting ice caps have caused sea levels in the north to rise. For the first time in hundreds of years, ships can pass through the fabled Northwest Passage above North America.

While the U.S. is trying to reduce their greenhouse gases, China plans to construct one coal-based electrical power station each week for the next 10 years.

Many airlines are encouraging "green" aircraft landings by descending in a smooth, continuous fashion to reduce fuel vibrational noise and save on fuel.

Studies on global warming, however, are not all bad. Some scientists want to induce global warming on Mars to make it habitable for life and eventual colonization.

Swedish scientist Svante Arrhenius realized as early as 1896 that human industrial activity was already surpassing the earth’s ability to reabsorb CO2.

Deserts worldwide are increasing as a result of warmer temperatures. At the end of the year 2007, Australia lost 25% of crop production due to desertification.

In the near future, around a hundred million people will see 3 feet of sea level rise.

Between the years 1961 and 1997, the world’s glaciers lost 890 cubic miles of ice.

Geologists believe sea levels could rise between seven and 23 inches by the end of the century if current warming trends continue.

By 2050, 15 to 37% of our plant and animal species could be wiped out.