How powerful is the evidence linking global warming to human activities?
The United Nations asked that question in 1988. They put together a panel of more than 2,000 scientists from 100 countries called the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). These scientists did lots of experiments to distinguish between natural warming and greenhouse warming. In 1995, they said they had reached a consensus: Human beings are changing the climate and it’s because of our burning of fossil fuels. They came out with another report last year that projects a very rapid increase in temperature in the coming decades. Basically, the scientific body says that the planet has only warmed about one degree in the last century and it will warm from three to ten degrees in this current century. To put that in context, the last ice age was only around five to nine degrees colder than our current climate. Each year we’re putting about seven billion tons of carbon up into the atmosphere. What will happen if global warming continues at its current rate? We will see some very ser
