The Top 10 Global-Warming Facts

1. It's more than 90% sure; humans cause global warming That was the unanimous conclusion in a recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC authors includes scientists and official government participants from 40 countries, including the US. Predictive models agree with observed temperatures only when anthropogenic effects are included.

2. Eleven of last 12 years were the hottest ever recorded That's since 1850. And the high temperatures of the last 50 years are unusual for at least the last 1300 years. Global Warming is real!

5,852,898,481,650,835 Pounds of CO2 since 1750 3. We are dumping about 1000 tons of CO2 per second into the atmosphere Current rates of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere are unprecedented. Carbon dioxide emissions are mostly from burning fossil fuels.

4. Current greenhouse gas levels are far higher than for the previous 650,000 years The current atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide is 35% greater than pre-industrial levels. Methane concentrations have increased by 250%. These dramatic increases in greenhouse gases are human-caused.

5. Global warming produces severe weather and rising seas. Warming oceans and melting ice have caused the sea level to rise at a rate unprecedented in the last 3000 years. Other changes associated with warming include increased incidences of drought, flooding, heat waves, and intense cyclones.

6. Global warming effects are predicted to get much worse By 2100, global temperatures will increase another 2 to 11 °F. Increases are predicted in heat waves, drought, intense cyclones, and loss of coastal and low areas.

7. Global warming will affect millions of people by 2100 Loss of habitable land is predicted to result from flooding and droughts. Increases are predicted in heat-caused deaths, famines, drinking water scarcity, disease, and forest fires.

8. 25% of the world's species could be lost from global warming effects More than 1 million plant and animal species will vanish if global temperatures continue to rise as predicted in the next 50 years.

9. China plans to build about one coal-fired electrical power plant per week over a period of a decade The US currently emits more greenhouse gases than any other nation, but China will soon pass the US as the worst greenhouse gas emitter.

10. It's too late to stop global warming, but we can limit it Models show that limiting greenhouse gas emissions can prevent the most extreme scenarios for global warming.