Did you know?
Since the IPCC’s Third Assessment Report, confidence has increased that a 1–2°C increase in global mean temperature above 1990 levels (about 1.5–2.5°C above pre-industrial levels) poses significant risks to many unique and threatened systems, including many biodiversity hotspots. Climate in Peril, 2007As global average temperature increase exceeds about 3.5°C, model projections suggest significant extinctions of 40–70 per cent of known species around the globe. This is one of the irreversible impacts of climate change. Climate in Peril, 2007
Extreme events coupled with sea level rise, are expected to be mainly adverse for humans. Food is an obvious worry. In higher latitudes there may be an initial slight increase in crop productivity for temperature rises below 3ºC, to be followed by a decrease in some areas. For lower latitudes, productivity may decrease for even small temperature rises. Climate in Peril, 2007
Sea levels rose 2cm in the 1700s, 6cm in the 1800s and 19cm in the 1900s, As ice sheets disintegrated at the end of the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago, sea levels rose by between 70cm and 1.3m per century. UNEP Year Book, 2009
A one-metre rise in the sea level worldwide could displace around 100 million people in Asia, mostly eastern China, Bangladesh and Vietnam; 14 million in Europe; and eight million each in Africa and South America. UNEP Year Book, 2009
While 2008 saw 10 per cent more ice cover than in 2007, the lowest figure on record, it was still more than 30 per cent below the average for the past three decades. Taken together, the two summers have no parallel. UNEP Year Book, 2009
The Greenland ice sheet, which could raise sea levels by six metres if it melted away, is currently losing more than 100 cubic km a year-faster than can be explained by natural melting. UNEP Year Book, 2009
2008 was the second year in a row when there had been an ice-free channel in the Northwest Passage through the islands of northern Canada, and through the Northern Sea Route along the Arctic Siberian coast. The two passages have probably not been open simultaneously since before the last ice age, some 100,000 years ago. UNEP Year Book, 2009
Transport accounts for over 20 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. In 2005 there were an estimated 650 million vehicles on the road with that number expected to double by 2030. UNEP Year Book, 2009
Hazardous substances, deposited from the atmosphere and locked away in glaciers, are now being re-released. UNEP Year Book, 2009
The pesticide DDT is turning up in unanticipated amounts in Adelie penguins that live in parts of the Antarctic coastline. UNEP Year Book, 2009
Organic pollutants are being carried back into the environment from melting glaciers in the Rocky Mountains of North America. UNEP Year Book, 2009
The 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that 60 per cent of the Earth's ecosystems-from forests and soils to coral reefs and grasslands-are damaged or being degraded. UNEP Year Book, 2009
