Greenhouse Gases
Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases – including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, fluorinated gases and others – produced as you live your life. The accumulation of these gases in the Earth’s atmosphere are trapping heat like a greenhouse, causing global warming and climate change. The consequences of global warming include loss of the polar ice caps, dirtier air, rising sea levels, more acidic oceans, higher extinction rates for wildlife, more severe weather events and higher human death rates.
You can monitor the Earth’s Vital Signs by visiting https://climate.nasa.gov/
The Evidence:
Increasing Carbon Dioxide Levels
Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide – the most dangerous and prevalent greenhouse gas – are at the highest level ever recorded. Since industrial activity began human activity has raised atmospheric CO2 by 50% – meaning the amount is now 150% of its value in 1750. Since 2002, CO2 levels have risen from 365 parts per million (ppm) to over 420ppm currently.
NASA (April 2025)
Rainforest Depletion
Total tropical primary forest loss in 2023 totalled 3.7 million hectares, the equivalent of almost 10 football fields of forest lost per minute. While this represents a 9% decrease from 2022, the rate in 2023 was nearly identical to that of 2019 and 2021. This forest loss produced 2.4 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2023, equivalent to almost half the annual fossil fuel emissions of the United States.
The World Resources Institute (April 2024)
Global Temperature Rise
Based on the global average temperature for the most recent 10-year period (2014-2023), the Earth is now approximately 1.2°C warmer than it was in the pre-industrial era (1850-1900). 2023 was the warmest year in record, with the global average near-surface temperature 1.45°C above the pre-industrial baseline. The period 2011-2020 was the warmest decade on record for both land and ocean.
World Meteorological Organization (March 2024)
Warming Oceans
The oceans have absorbed more than 93% of the increased heat from greenhouse emissions, with the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.22 degrees Centigrade since 1969.
US National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (Aug 2018)
Shrinking Ice Sheets
Between 1992 and 2020, the polar ice sheets lost 7560 billion tonnes of ice – equivalent to an ice cube measuring 20km each side. Melting of the polar ice sheets has caused a 21mm rise in global sea level since 1992, and now this melting accounts for a quarter of all sea level rise (up from 5.6% in the early 1990s).
European Space Agency
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Greenhouse gas emissions reached a new record high of 57.4 gigatonnes in 2023. They must drop by 43 per cent by 2030 (compared to 2019 levels) to keep temperature increase from exceeding 1.5°C. Under current national climate plans, the world is on track for a global average temperature rise of 2.5-2.9°C above pre-industrial levels.
World Meterological Organization (Nov 2023)
Decreased Snow Cover
Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and that the snow is melting earlier.
National Snow & Ice Data Center (September 2018)
Melting Permafrost
The release of methane and carbon dioxide from thawing permafrost will accelerate global warming. Greenhouse gases are released when organic matter that had been frozen below the soil for centuries thaws and rots. Researchers now suspect that for evey one degree Celsius rise in the Earth’s average temperature, permafrost may release the equivalent of 4 to 6 years’ worth of coal, oil and natural gas emission.
National Geographic (September 2019)
Sea Level Rise
Global mean sea level has risen about 8-9 inches since 1880. The rising water level is mostly due to a combination of melt water from glaciers and ice sheets, and thermal expansion of seawater as it warms. In 2023, global mean sea level was 101.4mm above 1993 levels, making it the highest annual average in the satellite record (1993-present).
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (Aug 2023)
Extreme Weather Events
Climate change is causing many extreme weather events to become more intense and frequent, such as heatwaves, droughts, and floods.
The Met Office
Ocean Acidification
Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 28% percent. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the oceans.
National Geographic
Global Fossil Fuel Consumption
The burning of fossil fuels produced an historic high of around 33.3 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide in 2018.
International Energy Agency (2018 report)
Biodiversity Loss
Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely. Climate change is one of the direct drivers of change.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Report 2019