Climate Change Facts
What, exactly, is climate change and why is it so important?
When we burn fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas to generate electricity, power our vehicles, manufacture products, and heat our homes, we release a number of gases into the atmosphere. Chief among these is carbon dioxide, which normally plays a natural role in helping to sustain life.
Over the past hundred years, we have released such massive quantities of these so-called “greenhouse gases”—not just through fossil-fuel burning, but also through other human activities, such as agriculture and logging—that we have thrown the atmosphere out of balance.
The gases are acting like a heat-trapping blanket wrapped around the globe that is gradually raising the planet's temperature. The heat just can't get out.
An increase of a few degrees won't simply make for pleasantly warmer summers. Even a modest rise of 2° to 3°F (1.1° to 1.7°C) could have dramatic and very serious impacts, such as:
- Sea level rise due to melting glaciers and the thermal expansion of the oceans as global temperature increases
- A high risk of more extreme weather events such as heat waves, droughts, and floods. Already, the global incidence of drought has doubled over the past 30 years.
- Degradation of glaciers, coral reefs, mangroves, arctic ecosystems, alpine ecosystems, boreal forests, tropical forests, prairie wetlands, and native grasslands.
These impacts will be felt strongest by the most vulnerable—developing nations in Africa, Asia and the Pacific that are least able to protect themselves from rising sea levels, disease, and crop failures.
Unless checked, this human-caused warming may trigger the irreversible melting of the Greenland ice sheet, which could raise sea levels by up to seven meters over the course of centuries. This alone would in turn force millions of people from their homes, disrupt global security, and destabilize the world economy.
To dig deeper into the hows and whys of global warming, visit the Global Warming FAQ maintained by TckTckTck partner the Union of Concerned Scientists—the leading science-based nonprofit working for a healthy environment and a safer world. Also check out the major new discoveries from the world of climate science, compiled by our friends at the World Resources Institute.
