1) Temperatures are breaking records around the world:
The 21st century has seen the most temperature records broken in recorded history. 2016 was the hottest year on record since 1880, according to NASA, with average temperatures measuring 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit (0.99 degrees Celsius) warmer than the mid-20th century mean Since the 1950s, every continent has warmed substantially. NASA’s latest visualizations, above, make that reality stark.
2) There is no scientific debate about the reality of climate change:
Multiple studies show that a massive 97 per cent of researchers believe global warming is happening But climate change is considered only the third most serious issue facing the world by the world’s population, behind international terrorism and poverty, hunger and the lack of drinking water
3) Arctic sea ice and glaciers are melting:
Arctic sea ice coverage has shrunk every decade since 1979 by 3.5 to 4.1 per cent. Glaciers have also been in retreat, including in major mountain ranges like the Alps, Himalayas and Rockies. In 2017, Arctic sea ice reached a record low for the third straight running
4) Sea levels are rising at their fastest rate in 2,000 years:
Levels are currently rising at their fastest rate for more than 2,000 years and the current rate of change is 3.4mm a year. In July, a massive crack in the Larson C ice shelf finally gave way sending a 5,800 square km section of ice into the ocean. The newly formed iceberg is nearly four times the size of London.
5) Climate change will lead to a refugee crisis:
An average of 21.5 million people have been forcibly displaced since 2008 due to climate changed-related weather hazards, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
6) Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef has been damaged as a result of climate change:
In April 2017, it was revealed that two-thirds of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has been severely damaged by coral bleaching. As a result, the coral loses its vibrant appearance, turns white and becomes weaker. Scientists say it will be hard for the damaged coral to recover.
7) The ocean is 26 percent more acidic than before the Industrial Revolution:
The pH of ocean surface water has decreased by 0.1, which makes them 26 percent more acidic now than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The waters are more acidic now that at any other point in the last 300,000 years.
8) Global flooding could triple by 2030:
The number of people exposed to flooding each year is at risk of tripling from 21 million to 54 million by 2030, This would result in the economic costs of flooding increasing from £65 billion to around £340 billion.
9) More greenhouse gases are in our atmosphere than any time in human history:
The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the milestone of 400 parts per million for the first time in 2015 and surged again to new records in 2016
10) Earth could warm by six degrees this century:
The Earth’s temperature will continue to rise so long as we continue to produce greenhouse gases. The estimates for how much temperature will increase by 2100 range from two degrees Celsius to as much as six degrees Celsius.