In Paris today, world leaders are meeting to come to agreements to fight global warming. The last time they met was in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. The earth has changed drastically since then. I found some of these changes to be amazing. 1997 was only 18 years ago. It's not so long in Earth times.
Since 1997...-The West Antartica and Greenland ice sheets have lost 5.5 trillions of ice.
-The five-year average surface global temperature for Jan to Oct has risen by nearly two-thirds of a degree F between 93-97 and 2011-15, according to NOAA. In 97, Earth set a record for the hottest year and then records were set again in 98, 2005, 2010 and 2014, and is expected to happen again in 2015.
-The average glacier has lost about 39 feet.
-Carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels climbed nearly 50 percent between 97-2013. The world is spewing more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide a day.
-The seas have risen nearly 2.5 inches on average.
-At its low point during the summer, the Arctic sea ice is on average 820,000 square miles smaller.
-The five deadliest heat waves of the past century have come in the past 18 years.
-The number of weather and climate disasters worldwide has increased 42 percent, though deaths are down 58 percent.
President Obama, French President Hollande, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates will announce a new initiative today, to develop clean energies, committing to spend 10 billions of dollars for a technological fix to the planet's climate woes.
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