A new study published Thursday in the journal Science provides the most definitive — and accurate — evidence yet that polar ice caps on Greenland and Antarctica are melting.
Shrinking ice is not the only telltale sign that climate change is real. From rising air and ocean temperatures to stronger storms to record droughts, evidence of a changing global climate is all around us.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (also known as the IPCC) has linked many of these changes in climate to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, which was documented in a 2007 assessment report compiled by thousands of scientists over decades of research and debate.
Regardless of their causes – whether you believe in anthropogenic drivers, like fossil fuels from power plants and cars or not — the observed changes in climate are scientific facts that have grave implications for the future of natural and human systems.
Global temperature trends estimated by four different research groups all show a warming of the Earth over the past century, with particularly rapid increases through the past few decades.
Source: EDF
Since 1901, global average surface temperatures have risen at an average rate of 0.13 degrees Fahrenheit per decade. The United States has warmed at nearly twice the global rate since the 1970s.
Source: EPA
Average temperatures in January-October of 2012 were the highest in the continental U.S. (1.04 degrees Fahrenheit above normal) and the ninth highest worldwide, since records began in 1850.
Source: Business Insider
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