The Inconvenient Facts About Global Warming

It is hard to believe that even in this time of extreme environmental conditions and changing weather patterns, the facts about global warming is still being disputed. This is also true about climate change facts.

When one understands just how the different global warming facts impact on our lives, we can start to comprehend our role in preventing further damage from occurring. We can understand storm effects such as El Nino and La Nino and the havoc they have on our environment.

As responsible individuals and citizens of planet earth, we have a pressing responsibility to communicate the true facts about global warming to all. Never underestimate the difference an individual can make. Al Gore and his Nobel Prize winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth is testament to this.

So, what are these Climate Change Facts we need to communicate:

Fact 1 When the planet Earth was created almost 4 Billion years ago, its atmosphere contained less than 1% oxygen. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was as low as 190 parts per million during the last Ice Age, about 21,000 years ago.

Fact 2 Plants, via photosynthesis, convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, eventually reaching 21% of the atmosphere. Animals operate in the opposite way than plants: they take up oxygen, burn organic matter (food), and release carbon dioxide as a byproduct

Fact 3 About 75% of the annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is due to the burning of fossil fuels.

Fact 4 In 2007, it is estimated that there are over 800 Million Motor Vehicles on Earth. Motor vehicles (cars, trucks, buses, and scooters) account for 80% of all transport-related energy use.

Fact 5 1998 was the warmest year on record. For the next 3 years, each year was second only to 1998. Then in 2005, the pattern broke - it equaled 1998.

Fact 6 Changes in land use occur when forests are converted from wild agricultural plantations to rangelands. And then from rangelands to farmed agricultural land, and then finally to urban areas. And other patterns of land degradation - such as deforestation, overgrazing, overcultivation, desertification and salinization - reduce the net uptake of carbon dioxide, increasing global warming.

Fact 7 Forests in 3rd world countries are destroyed for timber, excess trees which are not needed are then burned, causing tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. The resulting smoke and embers from this wasteful practice takes carbon levels in the air to a higher level. These carbon molecules interact with other chemicals in the air to produce a greenhouse effect.

Understanding these global warming facts gives us a path out of this predicament. They provide us with an approach to change the way that we live our lives and thereby can save the planet.