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The evidence is in: The vast majority of the
world's leading climate scientists now agrees that human activity is changing
our environment. The average temperature of the planet has risen approximately 1
degree Fahrenheit over the last 100 years and some parts of the world have
warmed by as much as 4.5 degrees Fahrenheit. Further, the 10 warmest years in
the past 100 have occurred since 1980. The Goddard Institute of Space Studies
declared that 1995 was the hottest year on record, and that 1991-95 was the
hottest five-year period on record. If we continue on our present course,
scientists predict that the earth could warm between 1.8 to 6.3 degrees
Fahrenheit by the year 2100. This would be the biggest change in the earth's
climate in the past 10,000 years.
Soil temperature records provide further evidence that
the earth is heating up. In ongoing measurements in the Alaskan Arctic, the U.S.
Geological Survey has determined that the temperature of the permafrost has
risen 3.6 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 40 to 90 years. During the past
10 years, scientists have measured an average ground warming of 1.8 degrees in
Cuba, Australia, Greenland, Russia, France, China and Italy, among other
countries.
The consequences: This rise in global temperature
has far reaching consequences. Studies reveal that glaciers are melting and snow
cover is disappearing on 5 continents. In fact in 1994, a 48 by 22 mile chunk of
the Larsen ice shelf in Antarctica broke off and melted. In 1997, huge crevasses
were found indicating that the rest of the shelf will soon follow.
Warming temperatures also mean rising sea levels.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, global sea levels
have risen 3.9 to 9.7 inches over the last century. Warming temperatures will
continue to raise sea levels as more glaciers and ice caps melt and ocean water
expands. A two foot rise in sea level would flood the 30 percent of the world's
population that lives within 30 miles of the coastline, contaminate freshwater
supplies and damage delta ecosystems such as the Amazon, the Ganges, the
Mississippi and the Nile. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a
one-meter sea level rise by 2100 will result in a loss of 25 to 80 percent of
U.S. coastal wetlands.
Warming temperatures also mean drastic habitat shifts
for plants and animals. Scientists have documented shifting populations and
altered migration behavior as animals attempt to adapt to a changing climate.
Many species that cannot adapt are in decline. Scientists also predict that
global warming will bring more frequent storms, will increase the spread of
infectious disease, and have many other consequences that we are unable to
realize or imagine at this time.
Other Hot Links
www.toowarm.org
www.commondreams.org
www.epa.gov/globalwarming/greenhouse
www.ucsusa.org/
www.nedc.noaa.gov
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