| |
| |
| Introduction | |
| |
| |
| |
| What the Science Says | |
| |
| |
| |
| "Normal Climate" Meant Something Different to the Dinosaurs and the Woolly Mammoths than It Does to Us | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Climate Has Changed Dramatically in the Past | |
| |
| |
| |
| Our Ancestors Survived Climate Change. But It Wasn't Always Pretty | |
| |
| |
| |
| Dinosaurs Didn't Drive Gas-Guzzlers or Use Air-Conditioning | |
| |
| |
| |
| Carbon Dioxide Is Like a Planetwide Sweat Suit (Sort Of) | |
| |
| |
| |
| "Global Warming" or "Climate Change"? Doesn't Matter, It's All the Same | |
| |
| |
| |
| Weather Is Not Climate. Climate Is Not Weather. Except They Kind of Are | |
| |
| |
| |
| On Venus, the Greenhouse Effect Makes It Hot Enough to Melt Lead | |
| |
| |
| |
| Carbon Dioxide Is Only Part of the Problem | |
| |
| |
| |
| Once We .Invented the Steam Engine, Climate Change Was Pretty Much Inevitable | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Ozone Hole Is Not Global Warming. Global Warming Is Not the Ozone Hole | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Northern Hemisphere Has Heated Up More in the Past Half Century than in Any Similar Period Going Back Many Hundreds of Years | |
| |
| |
| |
| Coal Alone Churns Out 20 Percent of Human Greenhouse Emissions | |
| |
| |
| |
| A Quarter of the CO<sub>2</sub> in the Atmosphere Comes from Fossil Fuels, and It's on the Way Up | |
| |
| |
| |
| If We Stopped Burning Fossil Fuels, We'd Keep Emitting Greenhouse Gases | |
| |
| |
| |
| No Natural Force Has Been Able to Explain the Recent Warming | |
| |
| |
| |
| CO<sub>2</sub> Could Stay in the Air for Hundreds or Thousands of Years, Trapping Heat the Whole Time | |
| |
| |
| |
| Extra CO<sub>2</sub> Going into the Sea Is Making the Ocean More Acidic | |
| |
| |
| |
| Cutting Down Forests Means More CO<sub>2</sub> Stays in the Atmosphere | |
| |
| |
| |
| Stop All Greenhouse Emissions and the Temperature Will Keep Going Up | |
| |
| |
| |
| Want an Exact Number for How Warm It Will Get? Sorry, Scientists Don't Have One | |
| |
| |
| |
| Melting Ice Makes the Ocean Rise-but It's Not the Only Factor | |
| |
| |
| |
| Nobody Ever Said Global Warming Means Every Year Will Be Hotter than the Last | |
| |
| |
| |
| Nobody Ever Said the Whole World Will Warm Up at the Same Rate | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Poles Are Warming Faster than Other Places. That's Just What Climate Scientists Predicted | |
| |
| |
| |
| What's Actually Happening | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Atmosphere Now Holds a Record Amount of CO<sub>2</sub>-Unless You Go Back Half a Million Years or More | |
| |
| |
| |
| Sea Level Is Eight Inches Higher than It Was in 1900 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Earth's Temperature Is About 1.4�F Higher than It Was in 1900 | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Continental United States Had Twice as Many Record-High Temperatures During the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century as Record Lows | |
| |
| |
| |
| Glaciers and Ice Caps Have Been Shrinking Since About 1850 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Greenland Is Losing Ice Faster All the Time | |
| |
| |
| |
| Polar Bears Will Suffer as Sea Ice Continues to Melt | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Growing Season in the Continental United States Is Two Weeks Longer than It Was in 1900 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Ecosystems Around the World Are Already Seeing Big Changes as the Climate Warms | |
| |
| |
| |
| Some Species Can Adapt to Changing Climate a lot Better than Others | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Arctic Has Been Losing Ice Much Faster than the Antarctic. That's Just What Scientists Expected | |
| |
| |
| |
| Arctic Sea Ice Has Been on a Mostly Downward Spiral for the Past Thirty Years | |
| |
| |
| |
| Droughts, Torrential Rains, and Other Extreme Weather Are Happening More Often than They Used To | |
| |
| |
| |
| Rising Ocean Temperatures Are Causing a Major Die-Off in Corals | |
| |
| |
| |
| What's Likely to Happen in the Future | |
| |
| |
| |
| Computer Models Aren't Perfect. This Isn't a Big Surprise | |
| |
| |
| |
| Since We Don't Know Whether and How Much People Might Cut Greenhouse-Gas Emissions, It's Hard to Know Exactly How High the Temperature Will Go by 2100 | |
| |
| |
| |
| An Imperfect but Still Pretty Good Prediction: Sea Level Will Rise Two to Six Feet by 2100. But That Could Change | |
| |
| |
| |
| The Effects of Greenhouse Gases Won't Magically Stop in 2100 | |
| |
| |
| |
| Best Guess About Atlantic Hurricanes in the Future: Fewer, but More Powerful | |
| |
| |
| |
| Whatever Happens with Hurricanes, Higher Sea Level Will Make the Storm Surges They Cause More Destructive | |
| |
| |
| |
| Climate Change Will Force People to Move, but Whether It's a Million People or a Hundred Million Is Hard to Say | |
| |
| |
| |
| Climate Change Can Be Bad for Your Health | |
| |
| |
| |
| Climate Change Can Be Bad for the Health of Entire Species, and Even for Their Survival | |
| |
| |
| |
| Freshwater Will Become Scarcer | |
| |
| |
| |
| Droughts Will Probably Come More Often | |
| |
| |
| |
| Climate Change Is Likely to Destabilize the Food Supply | |
| |
| |
| |
| Can We Avoid the Risks of Climate Change? | |
| |
| |
| |
| Who Says a 2�C Temperature Rise Won't Bring Really Bad Consequences? Not Scientists | |
| |
| |
| |
| Using Ethanol in Your Car Can Reduce Emissions-but Not Always by a lot | |
| |
| |
| |
| Burning Coal Doesn't Necessarily Mean Emitting Greenhouse Gases | |
| |
| |
| |
| Wind Energy Can't Solve Our Emissions Problem by Itself. Neither Can Other Renewables | |
| |
| |
| |
| Energy Costs Are Likely to Rise in the Short Term if We Limit Carbon Emissions | |
| |
| |
| |
| Nuclear Energy Is Essentially Carbon-Free. That Doesn't Mean It's Without Issues | |
| |
| |
| |
| Even If We Can't Reduce Emissions, Futuristic Technology Could Save Us. Maybe. And It Could Be Risky | |
| |
| |
| |
| If We Made It Easier for Plants and Animals to Relocate, We Might Prevent Some Species from Going Extinct | |
| |
| |
| |
| Reducing Emissions Has Benefits and Costs. But It's Hard to Pin Down Exactly What They Are | |
| |
| |
| Epilogue: The IPCC Is What, Exactly? | |
| |
| |
| References | |
| |
| |
| List of Outside References | |