Global Warming
Click here to calculate your personal CO2 emissions!
Here are a few facts about climate change, a phenomenom that is expected to worsen with increased combustion of fossil fuels. Despite the serious concerns about global warming, the Bush Administration has withdrawn from the Kyoto Protocol, a commitment to decrease dependence on fossil fuels from the global community.
- The world is getting warmer at an unprecedented rate, an increase linked to industrial activities and combustion of fossil fuels.
- Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, have risen by 29% since the mid-nineteenth century and are now at their highest point in the last 150,000 years.
- The average surface temperature of the Earth is expected to rise by between 2.5 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit over the next hundred years. The lowest estimate is based on assumptions that we curb our future production of greenhouse gases. During the last Ice Age, the Earth was only 9 degrees cooler than it is now. Climate change could represent a swing in global temperatures of an Ice-age magnitude within the lifetimes of our children.
- Every year from 1987 to 1999 has been one of the 15 warmest years on record.
- Global warming is linked to a host of serious human health effects and alterations in weather patterns and extreme weather events.
- Global warming is also linked to changes in some infectious diseases patterns.
- Warmer summer temperatures could worsen air pollution by increasing concentrations of ground-level ozone and other pollutants in the air that exacerbate asthma, a condition suffered by one in nine adults and one in 10 children in Washington State.
- Earlier snowmelts and higher temperatures could cause more summertime droughts, like the drought of 1999, threatening agricultural production, compromising water quality, and impairing hydroelectric power generation.
- Ice caps and glaciers are receding at a much more rapid pace than ever recorded in most locations around the globe.
- The United States, with only four percent of the world's population, generates over 25% of the world's CO2 emissions. Roughly one-third of those emissions come from the vehicles we drive, a third from power plants and the final third from other individual enery use.
- Petroleum-fueled cars and trucks built in the U.S. are at a 15 year low in fuel economy.
The United States imports more than fifty percent of its oil and one-quarter comes from the Persian Gulf. Decreased oil consumption and increased energy efficiency could decrease our reliance on foreign oil.
For a complete look at climate change in Washington State, take a look at "Death by Degrees: The Health Threats of Climate Change in Washington." (PDF)
There are many things that we as individuals can do to lessen our personal impact on the climate. We can reduce the amount of energy we use and thus reduce the amount of CO2 produced for our energy needs. Here is a list of Things You Can Do to Stop Global Warming.
Click here to learn how you can get involved in Washington state's 2008 climate campaign!
Links
Regional Links
National and Global Resources
This website is user friendly, displays sound science and is written in easy-to-understand language.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
This group was established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic information relevant to understanding climate change, its potential impacts, and options for adaptation and mitigation. They are the definitive group studying the issue.
National Academy report on climate change research
President George W. Bush, concerned that the science behind climate change may not have been sound, requested that the National Academies review the research done on the subject and evaluate it. This is the report the National Research Council issued.
Union of Concerned Scientists
This non-governmental organization is a group of scientists who advocate on different policy issues from the scientific perspective. Their website on climate change is excellent and thorough.