Global Warming

Winter 1999-2000 - the warmest winter in the U.S. since the government began keeping records 105 years ago and the third year in a row of record warm winters (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). During these same 3 months (December 1999 - February 2000), every continental U.S. state was warmer than its long-term average. From the Northern Plains to New England, the first snowfall and first freeze came later than ever. Since 1980, more than two-thirds of U.S. winters have been warmer than the long-term national average.

New York Times, 3/13/00

Greenhouse gases (chlorofluorocarbons, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, etc.)let heat in but stop it from going back out - like a windshield in a parked car.

At our current rate of creating these gases by industry, cars and burning fossil fuels, scientists predict a temperature increase of 4 to 9 degrees F by 2050. (9 degrees F separates today's average temperatures from the last ice age.)

The United Nations Panel on Climate Change recommends that we immediately cut our use of fossil fuels by at least half. To prevent the current rate from increasing, we would have to cut by 60%.

This same panel projects that by 2050 over a million more people dying each year from malaria because of higher mosquito populations due to global warming. Already yellow and dengue fever bearing mosquitoes are found over 3000' higher than their normal range in South America.

Other predicted results of global warming include expanding deserts, forest fires, heat waves, crop failure, erosion, mud slides, mass extinction of plants and animals, sea level increases causing flooding and damage to coastal aquifers.

The US with c. 5% of the world's population creates 25% of the 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide that causes 50% of the global warming trend. Five tons per capita per year! US oil consumption is now the highest since 1979.

Since 1988, insurance companies paid 17 multi billion dollar weather-related claims. There had never been one even as high as $1 billion before 1988.

Before 1900, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was stable at 280 parts per million. The concentration now is over 360 and the increase rate has doubled since 1958.

1995 was globally the hottest year in over 100 years and the driest in the UK for over 300 years. Information from the World Resources Institute, NASA's Goddard Institute, The United Nations Panel on Climate Change, Tom Horton-Rolling Stone March 1997.