Climate patterns shape natural ecosystems and affect everyone on the planet. The changing climate has effects in several aspects of the human lifestyle like food production, health and availability of resources.
There is an overwhelming body of evidences showing the implications of change in the global climate because of human activities, from melting glaciers to rise in sea levels.
Here are 25 facts about climate change:
Rising global temperature
1. Over the last century, the average temperature of our planet has increased by 1.5°F and is expected to rise to 8.6°F within the next century.
2. The rate of rise in global temperature over the past 50 years is almost double the rate of global warming over the past 100 years.
3. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that the global temperature will rise by 3-7.2°F in the 21st century.
4. The global temperature is estimated to rise at the rate of 0.2°C per decade.
5. The hottest year experienced yet is 2014. Previously, it was 2010.
6. In 1998, 16% of the world’s coral reefs were lost because of rise in temperature.
Rising sea levels
7. If the sea levels in the coastal regions were to rise by one yard, more than 100 million people will be displaced.
8. The summers in the Arctic region may be ice-free by the year 2040.
9. The average sea level of the world may rise 7-23 inches before this century ends.
10.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the possibility of 2-3 feet rise in sea levels this century is over 60%.
11. The panel also stated in 2001 that global warming could cause the sea levels to rise by 0.11 to 0.77 meters by the year 2100.
Facts from the United States
12. 37% of the American population don’t believe that climate change is real. Also, 64% believe that climate change will not have serious effects in their lives.
13. Since 1990, $40 million has been allocated as a separate budget to fund climate change researches in the US.
14. 99.84% of land in California has been affected by drought.
15. The U.S. Global Change Research Program estimated that the temperature in the United States has risen by 2 degrees over the past 50 years.
16. If the whole world adopted the American lifestyle, it would take as much as five Earths to fulfill the need of resources.
17. The United States contributes to approximately 22% of the global carbon emission.
18. It has been estimated that climate change costs the United States more than a $100 billion every year.
Effects on life
19. The current status of global warming puts 20-30% of plant and animal species at risk of extinction.
20. In 2003, the rise in temperature in Western Europe was linked to 70,000 more deaths than previous years.
21. Climate-sensitive diseases like diarrhea, protein-energy malnutrition, and malaria are among the largest killers in the world.
22. 600,000 people lost their lives because of weather-related disasters in the 1990s, out of which approximately 95% deaths occurred in developing countries.
23. According to World Food Program, the number of climate change victims could reach around 375 million per year in 2015.
24. Over 91% of the major disasters related to natural hazards that occurred over a span of two decades, from 1994 to 2013, were associated with climate and weather.
25. In May and June of 2015, more than 2500 and around 2000 people died because of extreme heat waves in India and Pakistan respectively.