Interesting facts about climate

August 31, 2009 | In: Nature Facts

In the prior inter-glacial period about 125,000 years ago, there was no summer ice at the North Pole and the sea level was 15 feet (5m) higher than today.

The earth’s average surface temperature has increased by about 0.7°C during the last century.

The average sea level globally rose between 0.1 and 0.2 metres during the 20th century.

The average global temperature, according to the International climate scientists banded together in the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will rise by three to 10 degrees Fahrenheit by the and of this century.

Eleven of the last 12 years rank among the 12 warmest years on record.

By 2020 between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will be facing increased water shortages.

Over the last 50 years, human activities – particularly the burning of fossil fuels – have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to affect the global climate.

Increasing atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide will have negligible
impact on the earth’s radiation balance and will promote plant growth every-
where. There is no need to sequester CO2 in the ground or to subsidise nuclear
or other non-carbon based methods of energy production.