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Source: Final Report: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, May 2007
ZERI Foundation
1. The global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750, and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years?
2. The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use (energy production, use of cars, energy consumption) and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture, the use of cows and sheep, the inappropriate use of land and the unsustainable practices of agriculture?
3. Carbon dioxide is the most important greenhouse gas and that its atmospheric concentration has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 280 ppm to 379 ppm in 2005, and that its atmospheric concentration in 2005 exceeds by far the natural range of concentration fluctuation over the last 650,000 years?
4. The global atmospheric concentration of methane gas has increased from a pre-industrial value of about 715 ppb to 1732 ppb in the early 1990s, and is 1774 ppb in 2005, and exceeds by far the natural range of the last 650,000 years?
5. The global atmospheric nitrous oxide concentration increased from a pre-industrial value of about 270 ppb to 319 ppb in 2005, and that more than a third of these emissions are caused by human activities and are primarily due to agriculture?
6. Eleven of the last twelve years (1995 -2006) rank among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature kept since 1850?
7. Mountain glaciers and snow cover have both declined on average in both hemispheres and that these widespread decreases in glaciers and ice caps have contributed to sea level rise?
8. The global average sea level rose at an average rate of 1.8 mm per year over 1961 to 2003 and that the rate was faster over 1993 to 2003, (about 3.1 mm per year)?
9. At continental, regional, and ocean basin scales, numerous long-term changes in climate have been observed. These include changes in Arctic temperatures and ice cover, widespread changes in precipitation amounts, ocean salinity, wind patterns and aspects of extreme weather including droughts, heavy precipitation, heat waves and the intensity of tropical cyclones?
10. During 1900 to 2005 significantly increased precipitation has been observed in eastern parts of North and South America, northern Europe and northern and central Asia, and drying has been observed in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia?
11. Widespread changes in extreme temperatures have been observed over the last 50 years, this means that cold days, cold nights and frost have become less frequent, while hot days, hot nights, and heat waves have become more frequent?
12. There is evidence of an increase in the intensity of tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic since about 1970, correlated with increases of tropical sea surface temperatures?
13. Continued greenhouse gas emissions at or above current rates would cause further warming and induce many changes in the global climate system during the 21st century that would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century.
14. Increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration leads to increasing acidification of the ocean? Projections give reductions in average global surface ocean pH16 of between 0.14 and 0.35 units over the 21st century, adding to the present decrease of 0.1 units since pre-industrial times?
15. Snow cover is projected to contract affecting most permafrost regions?