Climate Change is Here! The Facts

The Facts

1. Climate change is here and it’s not going away.
2. 97% of climate scientists agree that climate warming is due to human activity.
3. The latest report by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we have only 12 years left to avoid a climate change catastrophe.
4. Billions of tons of ice have already been lost in Greenland, the Arctic, and Antarctica.
5. The concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the highest in 3 million years. It hasn’t stopped increasing.
6. In the last 40 years, average wildlife populations have decreased by 60%.
7. We are in an extinction crisis. Earth is losing animal species at 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate.
8. President Trump gutted the Endangered Species Act, making room for oil and mining development.
9. Antarctica and Greenland hold enough frozen water that if completely melted, they would raise sea levels by 213 feet.
10. Polar ice is melting at record levels. Many species dependent on ice and polar climates are threatened, including polar bears, seals, whales, and penguins.

1. It’s happening all over the world.
2. The last male northern white rhino died in 2018. There are only two females left before extinction.

13. On June 24, 2012, Lonesome George, the last surviving Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, died in the Galapagos Islands. The species is now extinct.

14. Climate change leads to more severe hurricanes, drought, floods, and severe weather events. If nothing changes, they will be the “new normal.”

15. Climate change affects everything – from the land, to the seas, and the air – plant life, marine life, and human life.

16. If it continues at the present rate, sea levels will rise 10-32 inches, important food crops will fail or lose quality and nutritional levels, less fresh water will be available (melting glaciers store about ¾ of Earth’s fresh water) leading to water shortages, fish and other marine animals will be depleted, there will be global food shortages, water scarcity, social unrest, human conflicts . . . everything will be affected.

17. 65% of global greenhouse gas emissions is from burning fossil fuels.

18. There is still hope!!!! We need to act now.

19. We need to work with nature, using natural solutions like halting deforestation, restoring degrading forests, and preserving rainforests like the Amazon, which provides at least 30% of the solution.

20. We need to collaborate globally, elect politicians and leaders fighting climate change, confront the climate deniers, join groups and social networks to support change, and do our share individually with our families, friends, and communities.

Be part of the solution!

It’s not too late.

It’s all here on Dr. Fink’s All About Climate Change.com and in the many books, blogs, groups, leaders, and individuals working to save our beautiful planet.

Read and share the mini books Is Your Wonton Soup Endangered? The Survivor’s Guide to Food in the Age of Climate Change and (coming soon) Are You Endangered? Well-Being in the Age of Climate Change.