| Summary: | The scientific consensus is now clear. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released through the burning of fossil fuels and other human activity are accumulating in the atmosphere and causing average global temperature to rise.) We are already beginning to feel the effects. 2005 was the hottest year on record. Of the 21 hottest years ever measured since they started keeping records in 1860, 20 have occurred in last 25 years. The permafrost is melting in the arctic. Glaciers around the world are receding. By 2030, there will be no more glaciers in Glacier National Park. As the earth heats up, ecosystems across the globe are changing. Species that have evolved over millennia to adapt to particular climatic conditions are finding their habitats so drastically altered that their very survival is threatened. As the arctic sea ice melts, polar bears—a species that couldn't be farther from any center of human industrial activity—are facing extinction. And that's only the tip of the ice berg. Scientists estimate that human-induced climate change will drive a quarter of the species on earth to extinction by mid-century. There is literally no longer any spot on earth that remains untouched by human action. In the words of Bill McKibben, we are witnessing ";the end of Nature
|
|---|