What is Climate Change?

Climate Change is Real. And It's Happening Now.

Though there is a lot of variation at the local level, the average temperature of the planet is increasing. As a result, the climate is changing and becoming more variable.

Climate change affects people everywhere in critical ways: the availability of clean water, the ability to grow enough food, the spread of infectious diseases, the occurrence of extreme weather events, and more.

Unfortunately, the people most directly affected by this environmental crisis are the least equipped to respond. They are poor and often illiterate. Their biggest worry is feeding their families. Yet because of their close connection and interdependency with the land, the rural poor also hold the key to any lasting solution.

For 17 years EcoLogic has worked with poor, rural communities to help them become better environmental stewards, saving forests and water resources while improving people's wellbeing. Learn how EcoLogic is creating environmental leadership that mitigates the effects of global climate change and how you can help.

Get the facts on climate change

See how EcoLogic is fighting climate change

Climate Change By The Numbers Mitigating Climate Change Global warming is one of the most serious challenges our planet faces. Left unchecked, it will increase the severity of hurricanes, cause major flooding, and intensify desertification. Global warming is the direct result of adding too much carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The average American will release about 20 tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere each year through daily activities like driving to work, turning on lights, and heating and cooling the home. EcoLogic believes that because this problem will affect all of us, we all must take part in the solution. One part of the solution is to plant and protect trees that store or "sequester" the carbon dioxide our society produces on a daily basis. Because tropical forests have been identified as effective areas to serve this function, and because the majority of communities we serve live near or in these forests, EcoLogic is leading the way in the introduction of this win/win solution to local conservation efforts and global environmental well-being. By planting and protecting trees, EcoLogic’s Honduran venture Pico Bonito Forests helps offset carbon dioxide emissions. The carbon stored though these efforts generates carbon credits, which are then sold to countries looking to meet their greenhouse emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Producing and selling carbon credits benefits poor, rural communities by employing individuals in the planting and maintenance of millions of trees each year. Linking global market demand for forest resources to the communities we serve helps EcoLogic and our local partners halt destructive land-use practices that severely decrease the Earth's capacity to absorb greenhouse gases, protect water, prevent erosion, and support life. In 2009, we began our CarbonPlus Program, offering corporations and institutions the opportunity to neutralize their carbon impact by purchasing carbon credits produced by our projects. Read more facts on climate change. Climate Change By the Numbers Greenhouse Gases and Human Activity Human activities cause the release of greenhouse gases Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are higher today than they have been in 800,000 years Increases in the concentration of the greenhouse gases CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons are attributable to human activity since industrialization 75% of human-driven CO2 emissions come from the burning of fossil fuels for energy 33% of human-driven CO2 emissions come from the transportation sector Tropical deforestation accounts for 20% of global CO2 emissions The Arctic icecap is declining at a rate of 9% per year The United States has one twentieth of the world's population, who release one fifth of the world's greenhouse gases One third of all the CO2 released by human activity since 1850 has been released by the United States Americans release 20 tons of CO2 per person per year, two times the European average and four times the global average Coal burning power plants in the US release 2.5 billion tons of CO2 per year, automobiles release 1.5 billion tons The closest earth has come to the current CO2 concentration during the past 400 millennia was 320,000 years ago, when the closest relatives to modern humans were the early Neanderthals, and even then CO2 was only 300 ppm. Public Health Global climate change will lead to more frequent and more severe extreme weather events such as hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, tropical storms, and flooding A rise in sea level of 16 inches could put up 125 million people at risk for flooding Land areas defined as "very dry" have doubled in extent since the 1970s 50% of the US population lives near the coast and is therefore vulnerable to sea level rise/ocean effects of climate change Over 30,000 people were killed in the 2003 heat wave in Europe, which was the worst in 500 years The Midwest has seen two severe floods of the intensity expected only once every hundred years, in the past 15 years Category 4 and 5 storms have doubled in the past thirty years Ecosystems Climate change could become the main driver of species extinction by the end of the century An average increase of 2 degrees F will put up to 30 percent of the world's species at risk for extinction Climate Change Facts The climate on earth is changing. So what's the big deal? Climate has historically changed, from Ice Ages to warming periods. Scientists currently have climate data that go back nearly 400,000 years, and as technology improves, so does the accuracy of the data. Global circulation models (GCM) help scientists to test and confirm the data and predict the effects of climatic change, and those models, once primitive and inaccurate, are rapidly improving in their ability to inform us. The real problem facing us now is that the changes in climate currently being observed do not fit into the pattern of historical variation. Instead, we are seeing unprecedented changes, outside the historic range of climactic factors, and while some parts of the puzzle are still uncertain, what is certain is that the world we live in is dramatically changing. How do we know climate change is real? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a consortium of leading scientists in a wide range of climate-related subjects from nations all around the world. The IPCC's latest report in 2007 declared: "Warming of the climate system is now unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level." The authors continue to assert that with 90 percent certainty,most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to the observed increased in manmade greenhouse gas concentrations. Unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases are being released by human activity and altering the earth's climate.1 Carbon dioxide levels are higher today than they have been in 800,000 years.2 Over the course of the past 400,000 years, the level of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere has fluctuated, never falling below 180 parts per million and never rising above 300. Since the mid 1800s, however, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has skyrocketed to 380 parts per million. Both the speed and magnitude of the present increase in carbon dioxide levels are unprecedented and are directly attributable to humanity's use of natural resources since the Industrial Revolution.3 Our world is changing, and with it, so will our lives.  Read more about the impact climate change is having on biodiversity.   If this is all true, why do some people say climate change isn't a problem? Because global climate is such a complex system with many various factors acting at the local, regional and global scale, it is very difficult to predict outcomes because there are so many different ways these factors can behave and interact. Furthermore, not all observations will be consistent with a global warming trend because of local factors and interactions. Plus, it takes a long time for the effects of climate change to accumulate into noticeable change, so while climate is and has been changing, many of the dramatic changes are yet to come. Think of watching the weather for one day in your hometown. It may be sunny and warm, but maybe it's above average temperature that particular day. Maybe it's below average temperature. And maybe a big storm is brewing to the west and hasn't reached your town yet, so you don't know that in two days it will be rainy and windy. Plus, based on that day alone, you won't know what the weather will be like in two years, or five years, or ten years, or whether it's been getting colder or warmer. That's because local measurements reflect local conditions and interactions, not trends that occur over large spatial areas over a long period of time. There will be a great deal of variation across the globe, and not all observations will fit the pattern, but there is a pattern, and the evidence is mounting. The world's climate is changing, and we will have to change our lives with it.   What can we do about increased atmospheric carbon dioxide? EcoLogic is working to address climate change through carbon sequestration, or the capture and storage of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Twenty percent of global carbon dioxide emissions come from deforestation, and EcoLogic aims to address this problem while simultaneously protecting biodiversity and ensuring sustainable livelihoods in rural communities of Central America. EcoLogic works with community-based organizations to plant new trees and restore existing forests, alleviating damage from deforestation and offsetting carbon emissions. Read about EcoLogic's work protecting tropical forests   Further Reading Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) The Pew Center on Global Climate Change  Environmental Protection Agency  The Convention on Biological Diversity Natural Resource Defense Council's Global Warming Basics  Your Carbon Diet on PBS An Inconvenient Truth Official Site Footnotes: 1 http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/global-warming-science-brief-august08.pdf 2 http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Climate101-Complete-Jan09.pdf 3 http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/FAQ/wg1_faq-7.1.html 4 http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/ 5 http://ipcc-wg1.ucar.edu/wg1/FAQ/wg1_faq-5.1.html 6 http://www.who.int/globalchange/climate/en/index.html 7 http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/scidev/124266393671.htm 8 http://www.nature.com/nature/links/040108/040108-1.html 9 http://www.climatecrisis.net/thescience/