text: But observations, such as those on our CO2 Coalition website, show that increased CO2 levels over the next century will cause modest and beneficial warming—perhaps as much as one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit)

evidence_id: Climate change in the United States:198

article: Climate change in the United States

evidence: In it was the prediction that on our current course the planet will warm a disastrous seven degrees Fahrenheit (or about 3.9 degrees Celsius) by the end of this century.

evidence_id: Climate change in the United States:285

article: Climate change in the United States

evidence: "A projected increase of 4.05 degrees Fahrenheit in average temperature is expected by 2065, and a projected increase of 9.37 degrees Fahrenheit in average temperature can be expected by the turn of the century if nothing is done to curb emissions.

evidence_id: Greenhouse gas:131

article: Greenhouse gas

evidence: Future warming is projected to have a range of impacts, including sea level rise, increased frequencies and severities of some extreme weather events, loss of biodiversity, and regional changes in agricultural productivity.

evidence_id: Kyoto Protocol:0

article: Kyoto Protocol

evidence: The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that (part one) global warming is occurring and (part two) it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:24

article: Sea level rise

evidence: Also, a report by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research stated that around three million years ago, levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere were similar to today’s levels which increased temperature by two to three degrees Celsius and melted one third of Antarctica’s ice sheets.


text: The costs of emissions regulations, which will be paid by everyone, will be punishingly high and will provide no benefits to most people anywhere in the world.

claim_label: DISPUTED

evidence_id: Environmental economics:65

article: Environmental economics

evidence: Increasing the costs of polluting will discourage polluting, and will provide a "dynamic incentive," that is, the disincentive continues to operate even as pollution levels fall.

evidence_id: Environmental economics:66

evidence_label: SUPPORTS

article: Environmental economics

evidence: A pollution tax that reduces pollution to the socially "optimal" level would be set at such a level that pollution occurs only if the benefits to society (for example, in form of greater production) exceeds the costs.

evidence_id: Market failure:37

article: Market failure

evidence: Because there is very low cost but high benefit to individual drivers in using the roads, the roads become congested, decreasing their usefulness to society.

evidence_id: Net metering:37

evidence_label: REFUTES

article: Net metering

evidence: point out that while distributed solar and other energy efficiency measures do pose a challenge to electric utilities' existing business model, the benefits of distributed generation outweigh the costs, and those benefits are shared by all ratepayers.

evidence_id: United Kingdom enterprise law:5

article: United Kingdom enterprise law

evidence: The National Health Service was set up in 1946 to provide everyone free health care, regardless of class or income, paid for by progressive taxation.


text: “In 2013 the level of U.S. farm output was about 2.7 times its 1948 level, and productivity was growing at an average annual rate of 1.52%.

evidence_id: Economy of the United States:501

article: Economy of the United States

evidence: Despite the recession, it was still at 2.79% in 2012 and will slide only marginally to 2.73% in 2013, according to provisional data, and should remain at a similar level in 2014.

evidence_id: Economy of the United States:93

article: Economy of the United States

evidence: It grew 3.0% per year on average in the 1960s, 2.1% in the 1970s, 2.4% in the 1980s, 2.2% in the 1990s, 0.7% in the 2000s, and 0.9% from 2010 to 2017.

article: Reaganomics

evidence: GDP per employed person increased at an average 1.5% rate during the Reagan administration, compared to an average 0.6% during the preceding eight years.

article: Reaganomics

evidence: Private sector productivity growth, measured as real output per hour of all persons, increased at an average rate of 1.9% during Reagan's eight years, compared to an average 1.3% during the preceding eight years.

evidence_id: Unemployment in the United States:469

article: Unemployment in the United States

evidence: This forecast assumes real GDP growth would be 1.4% in 2013 and 2.5% in 2014.


text: With more CO2 in the atmosphere, the challenge [feeding 2.5 billion more people] can and will be met.

claim_label: SUPPORTS

evidence_id: Carbon footprint:170

article: Carbon footprint

evidence: To set these numbers into context, assuming a global population around 9–10 billion by 2050 a carbon footprint of about 2–2.5 tons CO2e per capita is needed to stay within a 2 °C target.

evidence_id: Environmental degradation:33

article: Environmental degradation

evidence: The amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) will rise, and both of these will influence water resources; evaporation depends strongly on temperature and moisture availability which can ultimately affect the amount of water available to replenish groundwater supplies.

evidence_id: Greenhouse gas:109

article: Greenhouse gas

evidence: In the modern era, emissions to the atmosphere from volcanoes are approximately 0.645 billion tonnes of CO 2 per year, whereas humans contribute 29 billion tonnes of CO 2 each year.

evidence_id: Greenhouse gas:122

article: Greenhouse gas

evidence: the stock of carbon in the atmosphere increases by more than 3 million tonnes per annum (0.04%) compared with the existing stock.

evidence_id: Greenhouse gas:328

article: Greenhouse gas

evidence: "CO2 in the atmosphere just exceeded 415 parts per million for the first time in human history".


text: “Global warming and climate change, even if it is 100% caused by humans, is so slow that it cannot be observed by anyone in their lifetime.

claim_label: REFUTES

evidence_id: Global warming:183

article: Global warming

evidence: The effects of climate change on human systems, mostly due to warming and shifts in precipitation, have been detected worldwide.

evidence_id: Global warming:276

article: Global warming

evidence: In the scientific literature, there is an overwhelming consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases.

evidence_id: Global warming:3

article: Global warming

evidence: But, more accurately, global warming is the mainly human-caused increase in global surface temperatures and its projected continuation, while climate change includes both global warming and its effects, such as changes in precipitation.

evidence_id: Global warming:43

article: Global warming

evidence: The slower pace of warming can be attributed to a combination of natural fluctuations, reduced solar activity, and increased volcanic activity.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:69

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: The global warming observed over the past 50 years is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.


text: Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and other natural disasters have yet to show any obvious long-term change.”

evidence_id: Disaster risk reduction:14

article: Disaster risk reduction

evidence: Climate change, through rising temperatures, changing rainfall patterns, and changing sea levels, will affect the nature of hydrometeorological disasters, such as droughts, floods, and cyclones.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:74

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: There may have been changes in other climate extremes (e.g., floods, droughts and tropical cyclones) but these changes are more difficult to identify.

evidence_id: Extreme weather:66

article: Extreme weather

evidence: Researchers have for the first time attributed recent floods, droughts and heat waves, to human-induced climate change.

evidence_id: Natural disaster:0

article: Natural disaster

evidence: A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples are floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, and other geologic processes.

evidence_id: Severe weather:185

article: Severe weather

evidence: Another form of severe weather is drought, which is a prolonged period of persistently dry weather (that is, absence of precipitation).


text: Drought in the western U.S. pales in comparison to the mega-droughts tree rings tell us existed in centuries past.

evidence_id: Droughts in the United States:36

article: Droughts in the United States

evidence: Drought apparently struck what is now the American Southwest back in the 13th century, which probably affected the Pueblo cities, and tree rings also document drought in the lower and central Mississippi River basin between the 14th and 16th century.

article: Megadrought

evidence: A megadrought (or mega-drought) is a prolonged drought lasting two decades or longer.

article: Megadrought

evidence: The tree-ring data indicate that the Western states have experienced droughts that lasted ten times longer than anything the modern U.S. has seen.

article: Megadrought

evidence: Based on annual tree rings, NOAA has recorded patterns of drought covering most of the U.S. for every year since 1700.

article: Megadrought

evidence: During a 200-year mega drought in the Sierra Nevada that lasted from the 9th to the 12th centuries, trees would grow on newly exposed shoreline at Fallen Leaf Lake, then as the lake grew once again, the trees were preserved under cold water.


text: Lake-bottom sediments in Florida tell us that recent major hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico has been less frequent than in centuries past.

evidence_id: Atlantic hurricane:182

article: Atlantic hurricane

evidence: Few major hurricanes struck the Gulf coast during 3000–1400 BC and again during the most recent millennium.

evidence_id: Atlantic hurricane:308

article: Atlantic hurricane

evidence: Millennial-scale variability in catastrophic hurricane landfalls along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

article: Florida

evidence: Devastating hurricanes in 1926 and 1928, followed by the Great Depression, brought that period to a halt.

article: Florida

evidence: From 1851 to 2006, Florida was struck by 114 hurricanes, 37 of them major—category 3 and above.

evidence_id: Hurricane Katrina:29

article: Hurricane Katrina

evidence: The pressure measurement made Katrina the fifth most intense Atlantic hurricane on record at the time, only to be surpassed by Hurricanes Rita and Wilma later in the season; it was also the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico at the time.


text: “Sea level rise, which was occurring long before humans could be blamed, has not accelerated and still amounts to only 1 inch every ten years.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:163

article: Sea level rise

evidence: For instance, a 2016 study led by Jim Hansen concluded that based on past climate change data, sea level rise could accelerate exponentially in the coming decades, with a doubling time of 10, 20 or 40 years, respectively, raising the ocean by several meters in 50, 100 or 200 years.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:2

article: Sea level rise

evidence: More precise data gathered from satellite radar measurements reveal an accelerating rise of 7.5 cm (3.0 in) from 1993 to 2017, which is a trend of roughly 30 cm (12 in) per century.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:442

article: Sea level rise

evidence: "20th century acceleration in global sea-level rise".

evidence_id: Sea level rise:492

article: Sea level rise

evidence: "Antarctica ice melt has accelerated by 280% in the last 4 decades".

evidence_id: Sea level rise:85

article: Sea level rise

evidence: A 2018 systematic review study estimated that ice loss across the entire continent was 43 gigatons (Gt) per year on average during the period from 1992 to 2002, but has accelerated to an average of 220 Gt per year during the five years from 2012 to 2017.


text: If a major hurricane is approaching with a predicted storm surge of 10-14 feet, are you really going to worry about a sea level rise of 1 inch per decade?”

evidence_id: Effects of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans:58

evidence: It was also forecast that the storm surge in Lake Pontchartrain would reach 14–18 feet (4.3–5.5 m), with waves reaching 7 feet (2 m) above the storm surge.

evidence_id: Hurricane Katrina:123

article: Hurricane Katrina

evidence: The height of the surge is uncertain because of a lack of data, although a tide gauge in Plaquemines Parish indicated a storm tide in excess of 14 feet (4.3 m) and a 12-foot (3.7 m) storm surge was recorded in Grand Isle.

evidence_id: Hurricane Katrina:134

article: Hurricane Katrina

evidence: The range of surge levels in eastern St. Tammany Parish is estimated at 13–16 feet (4.0–4.9 m), not including wave action.

evidence_id: Hurricane Katrina:81

article: Hurricane Katrina

evidence: Since the storm surge produced by the hurricane's right-front quadrant (containing the strongest winds) was forecast to be 28 feet (8.5 m), while the levees offered protection to 23 feet (7.0 m), emergency management officials in New Orleans feared that the storm surge could go over the tops of levees protecting the city, causing major flooding.

evidence_id: Storm surge:13

article: Storm surge

evidence: A storm surge of 14 ft (4.2 m) occurred in New York City during Hurricane Sandy in October 2012.


text: If Hillary would have fact-checked her example of sea level rise in Norfolk, Virginia, she would have found out that the experts already know this is mostly due to the land there sinking.

evidence_id: Hillary Clinton:839

article: Hillary Clinton

evidence: Clinton's story was thoroughly investigated by Fact Checker Michelle Ye Hee Lee in the Washington Post.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:192

article: Sea level rise

evidence: Some land masses are moving up or down as a consequence of subsidence (land sinking or settling) or post-glacial rebound (land rising due to the loss of the weight of ice after melting), so that local sea level rise may be higher or lower than the global average.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:280

article: Sea level rise

evidence: An example is the extension of the Delta Works in the Netherlands, a country that sits partially below sea level and is subsiding.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:293

article: Sea level rise

evidence: A study conducted between 1982 and 2010 found that some areas of Jakarta have been sinking by as much as 28 cm (11 inches) per year due to ground water drilling and the weight of its buildings, and the problem is now exacerbated by sea level rise.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:54

article: Sea level rise

evidence: In Europe for instance, considerable variation is found because some land areas are rising while others are sinking.


text: […]until we develop a practical, cost-competitive alternative to fossil fuels, it is unlikely that renewable energy will ever make up more than 15-20% of global energy requirements.

evidence_id: Cellulosic ethanol:188

article: Cellulosic ethanol

evidence: "The production of cellulosic ethanol represents not only a step toward true energy diversity for the country, but a very cost-effective alternative to fossil fuels.

evidence_id: Nuclear power debate:47

article: Nuclear power debate

evidence: The World Nuclear Association argues that: "Obviously sun, wind, tides and waves cannot be controlled to provide directly either continuous base-load power, or peak-load power when it is needed,..." "In practical terms non-hydro renewables are therefore able to supply up to some 15–20% of the capacity of an electricity grid, though they cannot directly be applied as economic substitutes for most coal or nuclear power, however significant they become in particular areas with favourable conditions."

evidence_id: Renewable energy:273

article: Renewable energy

evidence: According to the International Energy Agency, biofuels have the potential to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation fuels by 2050.

evidence_id: Renewable energy:34

article: Renewable energy

evidence: National renewable energy markets are projected to continue to grow strongly in the coming decade and beyond, and some 120 countries have various policy targets for longer-term shares of renewable energy, including a 20% target of all electricity generated for the European Union by 2020.

evidence_id: Renewable energy:91

article: Renewable energy

evidence: Globally, the long-term technical potential of wind energy is believed to be five times total current global energy production, or 40 times current electricity demand, assuming all practical barriers needed were overcome.


text: But the observed warming as monitored by satellites (our only truly global monitoring system) has been only about half of what computerized climate models say should be happening.

evidence_id: Global warming:1

article: Global warming

evidence: It is a major aspect of climate change and has been demonstrated by direct temperature measurements and by measurements of various effects of the warming.

evidence_id: Global warming:142

article: Global warming

evidence: Sea level rise since 1990 was underestimated in older models, but now agrees well with observations.

evidence_id: Global warming:183

article: Global warming

evidence: The effects of climate change on human systems, mostly due to warming and shifts in precipitation, have been detected worldwide.

evidence_id: Global warming:97

article: Global warming

evidence: Solar irradiance has been measured directly by satellites, and indirect measurements are available beginning in the early 1600s.

evidence_id: Global warming:99

article: Global warming

evidence: Physical climate models are also unable to reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when taking into account only variations in solar output and volcanic activity.


text: “The most famous of these studies, published in 2010 by Paul Kench and Arthur Webb of the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji, showed that of 27 Pacific islands, 14% lost area.

article: Funamanu

evidence: Paul Kench at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Arthur Webb at the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji released a study in 2010 on the dynamic response of reef islands to sea level rise in the central Pacific.

evidence_id: Geography of Tuvalu:99

article: Geography of Tuvalu

evidence: Tuvalu was mentioned in the study, and Webb and Kench found that seven islands in one of its nine atolls have spread by more than 3 per cent on average since the 1950s.

article: Kiribati

evidence: Paul Kench at the University of Auckland in New Zealand and Arthur Webb at the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission in Fiji released a study in 2010 on the dynamic response of atolls and reef islands in the central Pacific.

article: Kiribati

evidence: Kiribati was mentioned in the study, and Webb and Kench found that the three major urbanised islands in Kiribati—Betio, Bairiki and Nanikai—increased by 30% (36 hectares), 16.3% (5.8 hectares) and 12.5% (0.8 hectares), respectively.

article: Tuvalu

evidence: A study published in 2018 estimated the change in land area of Tuvalu's nine atolls and 101 reef islands between 1971 and 2014, indicating that 75% of the islands had grown in area, with an overall increase of more than 2%.


text: “It seems self-evident that rising sea levels will reduce land area.

evidence_id: Global warming:1282

article: Global warming

evidence: "The rate of sea-level rise".

evidence_id: Global warming:13

article: Global warming

evidence: Climate change threatens to diminish crop yields, harming food security, and rising sea levels may flood coastal infrastructure and force the abandonment of many coastal cities.

evidence_id: Global warming:354

article: Global warming

evidence: rising sea levels, shrinking Arctic sea ice).

evidence_id: Global warming:9

article: Global warming

evidence: The effects of global warming include rising sea levels, regional changes in precipitation, more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, and expansion of deserts.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:145

article: Sea level rise

evidence: Humans impact how much water is stored on land.


text: However, there is a process of accretion, where coral broken up by the waves washes up on these low-lying islands as sand, counteracting the reduction in land mass.

evidence_id: Barrier island:85

article: Barrier island

evidence: If sea level changes are too drastic, time will be insufficient for wave action to accumulate sand into a dune, which will eventually become a barrier island through aggradation.

evidence_id: Barrier island:88

article: Barrier island

evidence: He believed that waves moving into shallow water churned up sand, which was deposited in the form of a submarine bar when the waves broke and lost much of their energy.

evidence_id: Coral reef:112

article: Coral reef

evidence: Habili – reef specific to the Red Sea; does not reach near enough to the surface to cause visible surf; may be a hazard to ships (from the Arabic for "unborn") Microatoll – community of species of corals; vertical growth limited by average tidal height; growth morphologies offer a low-resolution record of patterns of sea level change; fossilized remains can be dated using radioactive carbon dating and have been used to reconstruct Holocene sea levels Cays – small, low-elevation, sandy islands formed on the surface of coral reefs from eroded material that piles up, forming an area above sea level; can be stabilized by plants to become habitable; occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans (including the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef), where they provide habitable and agricultural land Seamount or guyot – formed when a coral reef on a volcanic island subsides; tops of seamounts are rounded and guyots are flat; flat tops of guyots, or tablemounts, are due to erosion by waves, winds, and atmospheric processes Coral reef ecosystems contain distinct zones that host different kinds of habitats.

evidence_id: Coral reef:195

article: Coral reef

evidence: Waves, grazing fish (such as parrotfish), sea urchins, sponges and other forces and organisms act as bioeroders, breaking down coral skeletons into fragments that settle into spaces in the reef structure or form sandy bottoms in associated reef lagoons.

article: Coral

evidence: Over time, corals fragment and die, sand and rubble accumulates between the corals, and the shells of clams and other molluscs decay to form a gradually evolving calcium carbonate structure.


text: “suggest that residents are fleeing atolls swiftly sinking into the sea.

evidence_id: Battle of the Coral Sea:178

article: Battle of the Coral Sea

evidence: Heavily damaged and without power, Neosho was left drifting and slowly sinking (16°09′S 158°03′E / 16.150°S 158.050°E / -16.150; 158.050).

evidence_id: Bikini Atoll:540

article: Bikini Atoll

evidence: "Exiled by nuclear testing, rising seas force Bikinians to flee again".

article: Kiribati

evidence: Since land height has not changed the vulnerability of the greater part of the land area of each island to submergence due to sea level rise is also unchanged and these low-lying atolls remain immediately and extremely vulnerable to inundation or sea water flooding."

article: Kiribati

evidence: "Entire nation of Kiribati to be relocated over rising sea level threat".

article: Kiribati

evidence: "Islands disappear under rising seas".


text: President Hilda Heine has told reporters that longtime residents are leaving the Marshall Islands because climate change is threatening the nation’s existence.”

evidence_id: Hilda Heine:43

article: Hilda Heine

evidence: "First female President Hilda Hine elected in the Marshall Islands".

evidence_id: Hilda Heine:72

article: Hilda Heine

evidence: "Hilda Heine elected first female Pacific leader as president of Marshall Islands".

evidence_id: Marshall Islands:357

article: Marshall Islands

evidence: "A sinking feeling: why is the president of the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru so concerned about climate change?".

evidence_id: Marshall Islands:534

article: Marshall Islands

evidence: "In The Marshall Islands, Traditional Agriculture And Healthy Eating Are A Climate Change Strategy".

evidence_id: Marshall Islands:94

article: Marshall Islands

evidence: According to the president of Nauru, the Marshall Islands are the most endangered nation in the world due to flooding from climate change.


text: Policy makers who want to help the residents of the Marshall Islands today should look at improving the islands’ resilience

evidence_id: Development communication:122

article: Development communication

evidence: Communication for development is seen as a two-way process for sharing ideas and knowledge using a range of communication tools and approaches that empower individuals and communities to take actions to improve their lives.

evidence_id: Development communication:364

article: Development communication

evidence: Its approach is anticipatory which aims to improve policymaking in order to provide as much lead time as necessary in the solution of societal problems.

evidence_id: Development communication:374

article: Development communication

evidence: Policy sciences are concerned with helping people make better decisions toward fostering human dignity for all.

evidence_id: Development communication:613

article: Development communication

evidence: Submission of reports provides specific interventions that will guide policy makers in decisions.

evidence_id: Marshall Islands:196

article: Marshall Islands

evidence: United States government assistance is the mainstay of the economy.


text: ” ‘You see, gas in America is incredibly cheap, because of fracking,’ he says.

evidence_id: Natural gas:247

article: Natural gas

evidence: The high pressure water breaks up or "fracks" the rock, which releases gas from the rock formation.

evidence_id: Natural gas:304

article: Natural gas

evidence: In April 2008, the wholesale price was $10 per 1000 cubic feet ($10/million BTU).

evidence_id: Shale gas:209

article: Shale gas

evidence: Shale gas tends to cost more to produce than gas from conventional wells, because of the expense of the massive hydraulic fracturing treatments required to produce shale gas, and of horizontal drilling.

evidence_id: Shale gas:221

article: Shale gas

evidence: Natural gas for industrial use has become cheaper by around 30% compared to the rest of the US.

evidence_id: Shale gas:282

article: Shale gas

evidence: "Will Natural Gas Stay Cheap Enough To Replace Coal And Lower US Carbon Emissions".


text: The discrepancy between model-predicted warming and (lower) real-world observations has inspired new respect for natural climate variability relative to greenhouse-gas forcing.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:170

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Barnett and colleagues (2005) say that the observed warming of the oceans "cannot be explained by natural internal climate variability or solar and volcanic forcing, but is well simulated by two anthropogenically forced climate models," concluding that "it is of human origin, a conclusion robust to observational sampling and model differences".

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:192

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Models are unable to reproduce the rapid warming observed in recent decades when they only take into account variations in total solar irradiance and volcanic activity.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:199

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Models indicate that solar and volcanic forcings can explain periods of relative warmth and cold between AD 1000 and 1900, but human-induced forcings are needed to reproduce the late-20th century warming.

evidence_id: Global cooling:68

article: Global cooling

evidence: When the model included estimated changes in solar intensity, it gave a reasonable match to temperatures over the previous thousand years and its prediction was that "CO 2 warming dominates the surface temperature patterns soon after 1980."

evidence_id: Global warming:49

article: Global warming

evidence: Attributing detected temperature changes and extreme events to human-caused increases in greenhouse gases requires scientists to rule out known internal climate variability and natural external forcings.


text: Back in the late 1980s, the UN claimed that if global warming were not checked by 2000, rising sea levels would wash entire counties away.

evidence_id: Global warming:13

article: Global warming

evidence: Climate change threatens to diminish crop yields, harming food security, and rising sea levels may flood coastal infrastructure and force the abandonment of many coastal cities.

evidence_id: Global warming:146

article: Global warming

evidence: Between 1993 and 2017, the global mean sea level rose on average by 3.1 ± 0.3 mm per year, with an acceleration detected as well.

evidence_id: Global warming:354

article: Global warming

evidence: rising sea levels, shrinking Arctic sea ice).

evidence_id: Global warming:9

article: Global warming

evidence: The effects of global warming include rising sea levels, regional changes in precipitation, more frequent extreme weather events such as heat waves, and expansion of deserts.

evidence_id: Global warming:92

article: Global warming

evidence: Not only does this increase the absorption of sunlight, it also increases melting and sea level rise.


text: “In 2009, then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown predicted that the world had only 50 days to save the planet from global warming.

evidence_id: 2010 United Kingdom general election:12

article: 2010 United Kingdom general election

evidence: Realising that a deal between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats was imminent, the next day on Tuesday 11 May Brown announced his resignation as Prime Minister, marking the end of 13 years of Labour government.

evidence_id: Global warming:261

article: Global warming

evidence: In 2009 several UNFCCC Parties produced the Copenhagen Accord, which has been widely portrayed as disappointing because of its low goals, leading poor nations to reject it.

evidence_id: Gordon Brown:10

article: Gordon Brown

evidence: After initial rises in opinion polls following Brown becoming Prime Minister, Labour's popularity declined with the onset of a recession in 2008, leading to poor results in the local and European elections in 2009.

evidence_id: Gordon Brown:129

article: Gordon Brown

evidence: On 5 June 2007, just three weeks before he was due to take the post of Prime Minister, Brown made a speech promising "British Jobs for British workers".

evidence_id: Gordon Brown:93

article: Gordon Brown

evidence: Appearances and news coverage leading up to the handover were interpreted as preparing the ground for Brown to become Prime Minister, in part by creating the impression of a statesman with a vision for leadership and global change.


text: “climate economists see a positive externality, not a negative one, from the human influence on climate.

evidence_id: Carbon tax:24

article: Carbon tax

evidence: In economic theory, pollution is considered a negative externality, a negative effect on a third party not directly involved in a transaction, and is a type of market failure.

article: Externality

evidence: Externalities can be either positive or negative.

article: Externality

evidence: A positive externality (also called "external benefit" or "external economy" or "beneficial externality") is the positive effect an activity imposes on an unrelated third party.

article: Highway

evidence: The contribution of transport systems to potentially hazardous climate change is a significant negative externality which is difficult to evaluate quantitatively, making it difficult (but not impossible) to include in transport economics-based research and analysis.

article: Tax

evidence: Economists describe environmental impacts as negative externalities.


text: (In technical lingo, the so-called social cost of carbon would be negative.)”

evidence_id: Carbon credit:77

article: Carbon credit

evidence: Nordhaus has suggested, based on the social cost of carbon emissions, that an optimal price of carbon is around $30(US) per ton and will need to increase with inflation.

evidence_id: Carbon credit:78

article: Carbon credit

evidence: The social cost of carbon is the additional damage caused by an additional ton of carbon emissions.

evidence_id: Carbon price:161

article: Carbon price

evidence: So again we have the right outcome — provided the carbon price equals the social cost.

evidence_id: Carbon tax:416

article: Carbon tax

evidence: Several administrative advisers have stated that the social cost should be reduced to zero (currently at $36 per ton of carbon dioxide).

evidence_id: Carbon tax:460

article: Carbon tax

evidence: Carbon emissions have an "unpriced" societal cost in terms of their deleterious effects on the earth's climate.


text: …obsessing about climate change is avoiding a frank discussion about the here-and-now problems of budget deficits, the federal debt, school choice, entitlement reform, and so on.

evidence_id: Political positions of Paul Ryan:102

article: Political positions of Paul Ryan

evidence: He suggested using discussions about raising the federal debt ceiling as "leverage" to reduce federal spending.

evidence_id: Political positions of Paul Ryan:29

article: Political positions of Paul Ryan

evidence: He helped bring the issues of the national debt and the national deficit into the national policy debate.

evidence_id: Political positions of Paul Ryan:31

article: Political positions of Paul Ryan

evidence: His positions on fiscal policy have included tax cuts, cuts to entitlement programs, freezes on discretionary spending, the elimination of automatic inflation increases in calculating budget baselines, deregulation, and the privatization of social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and education.

evidence_id: United States federal budget:432

article: United States federal budget

evidence: Prior to the 2008-2009 U.S. recession, experts argued for steps to be put in place immediately to address an unsustainable trajectory of federal deficits.

evidence_id: United States federal budget:538

article: United States federal budget

evidence: "Ignoring the Debt Problem".


text: Global warming is driving major melting on the surface of Greenland’s glaciers and is speeding up their travel into the sea.”

evidence_id: Global warming:11

article: Global warming

evidence: Surface temperature increases are greatest in the Arctic, which has contributed to the retreat of glaciers, permafrost, and sea ice.

evidence_id: Global warming:92

article: Global warming

evidence: Not only does this increase the absorption of sunlight, it also increases melting and sea level rise.

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:55

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: When the meltwater seeps down through cracks in the sheet, it accelerates the melting and, in some areas, allows the ice to slide more easily over the bedrock below, speeding its movement to the sea.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:3

article: Sea level rise

evidence: This acceleration is due mostly to human-caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers.

evidence_id: Shutdown of thermohaline circulation:51

article: Shutdown of thermohaline circulation

evidence: Global warming could lead to an increase in freshwater in the northern oceans, by melting glaciers in Greenland, and by increasing precipitation, especially through Siberian rivers.


text: The melting Greenland ice sheet is already a major contributor to rising sea level and if it was eventually lost entirely, the oceans would rise by six metres around the world, flooding many of the world’s largest cities.

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:43

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: If the entire 2,850,000 km3 (684,000 cu mi) of ice were to melt, global sea levels would rise 7.2 m (24 ft).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:46

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: Ice sheet models project that such a warming would initiate the long-term melting of the ice sheet, leading to a complete melting of the ice sheet (over centuries), resulting in a global sea level rise of about 7 metres (23 ft).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:6

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: If the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometres (684,000 cu mi) of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m (24 ft).

article: Greenland

evidence: If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt away completely, the world's sea level would rise by more than 7 m (23 ft).

evidence_id: Ice sheet:21

article: Ice sheet

evidence: The Greenland ice sheet occupies about 82% of the surface of Greenland, and if melted would cause sea levels to rise by 7.2 metres.


text: Ice cap is disappearing far more rapidly than previously estimated, and is part of a long-term trend, new research shows

evidence_id: 2013 in science:559

article: 2013 in science

evidence: Rapidly melting sea ice is causing ocean acidification in the Arctic to occur at faster rates than previously forecast, with serious implications for the food web, according to new research.

evidence_id: Climate change in the Arctic:26

article: Climate change in the Arctic

evidence: The data show a long-term negative trend in recent years, attributed to global warming, although there is also a considerable amount of variation from year to year.

evidence_id: Future of Earth:203

article: Future of Earth

evidence: However, the long-term trend is for the plant life on land to die off altogether as most of the remaining carbon in the atmosphere becomes sequestered in the Earth.

evidence_id: Retreat of glaciers since 1850:396

article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850

evidence: A 2019 study showed that Antarctica is losing ice six times faster than it was 40 years ago.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:187

article: Sea level rise

evidence: More recent research, especially into Antarctica, indicates that this is probably a conservative estimate and true long-term sea level rise might be higher.


text: “Federal scientists have documented a sharp jump in this nuisance flooding — often called ‘sunny-day flooding’ — along both the East Coast and the Gulf Coast in recent years.

evidence_id: Gulf Coast of the United States:15

article: Gulf Coast of the United States

evidence: The area is vulnerable to hurricanes as well as floods and severe thunderstorms.

evidence_id: Gulf Coast of the United States:22

article: Gulf Coast of the United States

evidence: In August 2017, Hurricane Harvey made landfall along the central Texas coast, then migrated to and stalled over the greater Houston area for several days, producing extreme, unprecedented rainfall totals of over 40 inches (1,000 mm) in many areas, unleashing widespread flooding.

article: Mississippi

evidence: The French called the greater territory "New France"; the Spanish continued to claim part of the Gulf coast area (east of Mobile Bay) of present-day southern Alabama, in addition to the entire area of present-day Florida.

evidence_id: New Orleans:223

article: New Orleans

evidence: As the hurricane passed through the Gulf Coast region, the city's federal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worst civil engineering disaster in American history.

evidence_id: United States:257

article: United States

evidence: The Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges run close to the Pacific coast, both ranges reaching altitudes higher than 14,000 feet (4,300 m).


text: These tidal floods are often just a foot or two deep, but they can stop traffic, swamp basements, damage cars, kill lawns and forests, and poison wells with salt.

evidence_id: River Parrett:316

article: River Parrett

evidence: The area is prone to winter floods of fresh water and occasional salt water inundations, the worst of which in recorded history was the Bristol Channel floods of 1607, which resulted in the drowning of an estimated 2,000 or more people, with houses and villages swept away, an estimated 200 square miles (520 km2) of farmland inundated and livestock destroyed.

evidence_id: River Thames:229

article: River Thames

evidence: Wells with water tables that mixed with tributaries (or the non-tidal Thames) faced such pollution with the widespread installation of the flush toilet in the 1850s.

evidence_id: Salt marsh:39

article: Salt marsh

evidence: Coastal salt marshes can be distinguished from terrestrial habitats by the daily tidal flow that occurs and continuously floods the area.

evidence_id: Salt pannes and pools:15

article: Salt pannes and pools

evidence: High salt marsh Arrow-grass (forb) panne Briefly flooded, very shallow with a moderate amount of vegetation usually dominated by Arrow grass (Triglochin maritimum), with the deeper sections possibly remaining unvegetated.

article: Wetland

evidence: A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded by water, either permanently or seasonally, where oxygen-free processes prevail.


text: On the Pacific Coast, a climate pattern that had pushed billions of gallons of water toward Asia is now ending, so that in coming decades the sea is likely to rise quickly off states like Oregon and California.

article: California

evidence: The state's diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast.

article: Oregon

evidence: The state's southwestern portion, particularly the Rogue Valley, has a Mediterranean climate with drier and sunnier winters and hotter summers, similar to Northern California.

evidence_id: United States:267

article: United States

evidence: The climate is arid in the Great Basin, desert in the Southwest, Mediterranean in coastal California, and oceanic in coastal Oregon and Washington and southern Alaska.

evidence_id: Western United States:46

article: Western United States

evidence: Along the Pacific Ocean coast lie the Coast Ranges, which, while not approaching the scale of the Rocky Mountains, are formidable nevertheless.

evidence_id: Western United States:84

article: Western United States

evidence: Annual rainfall is greater in the eastern portions, gradually tapering off until reaching the Pacific Coast where it increases again.


text: “During ice ages, caused by wobbles in the Earth’s orbit, sea levels dropped more than 400 feet as ice piled up on land.

article: Earth

evidence: The ice shields of Antarctica and Greenland are counted as land, even though much of the rock that supports them lies below sea level.

evidence_id: Ice age:105

article: Ice age

evidence: Sea levels drop due to the removal of large volumes of water above sea level in the icecaps.

evidence_id: Ice age:172

article: Ice age

evidence: During the last glacial period the sea-level has fluctuated 20–30 m as water was sequestered, primarily in the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets.

evidence_id: Ice age:250

article: Ice age

evidence: During glaciation, water was taken from the oceans to form the ice at high latitudes, thus global sea level dropped by about 110 meters, exposing the continental shelves and forming land-bridges between land-masses for animals to migrate.

evidence_id: Quaternary glaciation:31

article: Quaternary glaciation

evidence: Due to the volume of ice on land, sea level was about 120 meters lower than present.


text: the last sea-level high point, … occurred between the last two ice ages, about 125,000 years ago.

article: Beringia

evidence: The last glacial period, commonly referred to as the "Ice Age", spanned 125,000–14,500 YBP and was the most recent glacial period within the current ice age, which occurred during the last years of the Pleistocene era.

article: Beringia

evidence: The Ice Age reached its peak during the Last Glacial Maximum, when ice sheets began advancing from 33,000 YBP and reached their maximum limits 26,500 YBP.

evidence_id: Ice age:86

article: Ice age

evidence: The Andean-Saharan occurred from 460 to 420 million years ago, during the Late Ordovician and the Silurian period.

evidence_id: Last Glacial Period:0

article: Last Glacial Period

evidence: The Last Glacial Period (LGP) occurred from the end of the Eemian to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago.

evidence_id: Weichselian glaciation:5

article: Weichselian glaciation

evidence: The last cold period began about 115,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago.


text: Through decades of research, it has become clear that human civilization, roughly 6,000 years old, developed during an unusually stable period for global sea levels.

article: Human

evidence: Though most of human existence has been sustained by hunting and gathering in band societies, many human societies transitioned to sedentary agriculture approximately 10,000 years ago, domesticating plants and animals, thus enabling the growth of civilization.

article: Human

evidence: Humans began to exhibit evidence of behavioral modernity at least by about 100-70,000 years ago and (according to recent evidence) as far back as around 300,000 years ago, in the Middle Stone Age, (with some features of behavioral modernity possibly beginning earlier, and possibly in parallel with evolutionary brain globularization in H. sapiens).

article: Human

evidence: [citation needed] By the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period (50,000 BP), and likely significantly earlier by 100-70,000 years ago or possibly by about 300,000 years ago behavioral modernity, including language, music and other cultural universals had developed.

article: Human

evidence: Agriculture and sedentary lifestyle led to the emergence of early civilizations (the development of urban development, complex society, social stratification and writing) from about 5,000 years ago (the Bronze Age), first beginning in Mesopotamia.

evidence_id: United States:52

article: United States

evidence: Over the years, more and more evidence has advanced the idea of "pre-Clovis" cultures including tools dating back about 15,550 years ago.


text: “Ice-free means the central basin of the Arctic will be ice-free

evidence_id: Arctic Circle:23

article: Arctic Circle

evidence: The climate inside the Arctic Circle is generally cold, but the coastal areas of Norway have a generally mild climate as a result of the Gulf Stream, which makes the ports of northern Norway and northwest Russia ice-free all year long.

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:317

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: "Patterns of zooplankton diversity through the depths of the Arctic's central basins".

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:55

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: The two major basins are further subdivided by ridges into the Canada Basin (between Alaska/Canada and the Alpha Ridge), Makarov Basin (between the Alpha and Lomonosov Ridges), Amundsen Basin (between Lomonosov and Gakkel ridges), and Nansen Basin (between the Gakkel Ridge and the continental shelf that includes the Franz Josef Land).

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:86

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: As temperatures cool dramatically in the winter, ice forms and intense vertical convection allows the water to become dense enough to sink below the warm saline water below.

evidence_id: North America:139

article: North America

evidence: Greenland, along with the Canadian Shield, is tundra with average temperatures ranging from 10 to 20 °C (50 to 68 °F), but central Greenland is composed of a very large ice sheet.


text: by that I mean the central Arctic will be ice-free.

article: Arctic

evidence: The melting of the ice is making the Northwest Passage, the shipping routes through the northernmost latitudes, more navigable, raising the possibility that the Arctic region will become a prime trade route.

article: Earth

evidence: Most fresh water, about 68.7%, is present as ice in ice caps and glaciers.

evidence_id: Global warming:145

article: Global warming

evidence: They include effects on the oceans, ice, and weather and may occur gradually or rapidly.

article: Murmansk

evidence: The port of Murmansk remains ice-free year round due to the warm North Atlantic Current and is an important fishing and shipping destination.

evidence_id: Retreat of glaciers since 1850:962

article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850

evidence: "Extreme melt onCanada's Arctic ice caps in the 21st century".


text: There will still be about a million square kilometres of ice in the Arctic in summer

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:144

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: Much of the Arctic ice pack is also covered in snow for about 10 months of the year.

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:5

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: It is partly covered by sea ice throughout the year and almost completely in winter.

evidence_id: Retreat of glaciers since 1850:355

article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850

evidence: It covers almost 14 million km2 and some 30 million km3 of ice.

evidence_id: Sea ice:102

article: Sea ice

evidence: In the Arctic, the area of ocean covered by sea ice increases over winter from a minimum in September to a maximum in March or sometimes February, before melting over the summer.

evidence_id: Sea ice:119

article: Sea ice

evidence: Predictions of when the first "ice free" Arctic summer might occur vary.


text: Most people expect this year will see a record low in the Arctic’s summer sea-ice cover.

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence_id: Arctic ice pack:32

article: Arctic ice pack

evidence: "Nonetheless, the extreme loss of this summer’s sea ice cover and the slow onset of freeze-up portends lower than normal ice extent throughout autumn and winter, and the ice that grows back is likely to be fairly thin".

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:164

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: "Absurd January Warmth in Arctic Brings Record-Low Sea Ice Extent".

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:31

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: The previous record of the lowest area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice in 2012 saw a low of 1.58 million square miles (4.09 million square kilometers).

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:9

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: The Arctic sea ice minimum is the day in a given year when Arctic sea ice reaches its smallest extent, occurring at the end of the summer melting season, normally during September.


text: People tend to think of an ice-free Arctic in summer in terms of it merely being a symbol of global change.

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:164

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: Research shows that the Arctic may become ice-free in the summer for the first time in human history by 2040.

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:242

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: "US Navy predicts summer ice free Arctic by 2016".

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:277

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: "Some of the models suggest that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap during some of the summer months will be completely ice-free within the next five to seven years," Gore said.

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:45

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: Models that best match historical trends project a nearly ice-free Arctic in the summer by the 2030s.

evidence_id: Global warming:1935

article: Global warming

evidence: "A sea ice free summer Arctic within 30 years?".


text: “Underneath the permafrost there are sediments full of methane hydrates.

evidence_id: Clathrate gun hypothesis:50

article: Clathrate gun hypothesis

evidence: (2008) estimate that not less than 1,400 gigatonnes of carbon is presently locked up as methane and methane hydrates under the Arctic submarine permafrost, and 5–10% of that area is subject to puncturing by open taliks.

article: Methane

evidence: Significant reservoirs of methane clathrates have been found in arctic permafrost and along continental margins beneath the ocean floor within the gas clathrate stability zone, located at high pressures (1 to 100 MPa; lower end requires lower temperature) and low temperatures (< 15 °C; upper end requires higher pressure).

evidence_id: Permafrost carbon cycle:50

article: Permafrost carbon cycle

evidence: Methane clathrate, or hydrates, occur within and below permafrost soils.

article: Permafrost

evidence: It also contains gas hydrates in places, which are a "potential abundant source of energy" but may also destabilize as subsea permafrost warms and thaws, producing large amounts of methane gas, which is a potent greenhouse gas.

evidence_id: Permian–Triassic extinction event:1069

article: Permian–Triassic extinction event

evidence: "The potential volume of oceanic methane hydrates with variable external conditions".


text: “The most recent prediction of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is that seas will rise by 60 to 90 centimetres this century.

evidence_id: Global warming:147

article: Global warming

evidence: Over the 21st century, the IPCC projects that in a very high emissions scenario the sea level could rise by 61–110 cm.

evidence_id: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change:237

evidence: Among other findings, the report concluded that sea level rises could be up to two feet higher by the year 2100, even if efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to limit global warming are successful; coastal cities across the world could see so-called "storm[s] of the century" at least once a year.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:157

article: Sea level rise

evidence: In its fifth assessment report (2013) the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimated how much sea level is likely to rise in the 21st century based on different levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:160

article: Sea level rise

evidence: If emissions remain very high, the IPCC projects sea level will rise by 52–98 cm (20–39 in).

evidence_id: Sea level rise:8

article: Sea level rise

evidence: For example, in 2007 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projected a high end estimate of 60 cm (2 ft) through 2099, but their 2014 report raised the high-end estimate to about 90 cm (3 ft).


text: the first scientists to show that the thick icecap that once covered the Arctic ocean was beginning to thin and shrink.

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:26

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: Nevertheless, as all the explorers who travelled closer and closer to the pole reported, the polar ice cap is quite thick, and persists year-round.

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:7

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: The summer shrinking of the ice has been quoted at 50%.

evidence_id: Global warming:150

article: Global warming

evidence: Global warming has led to decades of shrinking and thinning of the Arctic sea ice, making it vulnerable to atmospheric anomalies.

evidence_id: Retreat of glaciers since 1850:310

article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850

evidence: Other studies show that between 1960 and 1999, the Devon Ice Cap lost 67 km3 (16 cu mi) of ice, mainly through thinning.

evidence_id: Retreat of glaciers since 1850:315

article: Retreat of glaciers since 1850

evidence: The 66 km2 (25 sq mi) ice shelf drifted into the Arctic Ocean.


text: ‘Next year or the year after, the Arctic will be free of ice’

evidence_id: Arctic Ocean:164

article: Arctic Ocean

evidence: Research shows that the Arctic may become ice-free in the summer for the first time in human history by 2040.

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:208

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: "Expert predicts ice-free Arctic by 2020 as UN releases climate report".

evidence_id: Arctic sea ice decline:242

article: Arctic sea ice decline

evidence: "US Navy predicts summer ice free Arctic by 2016".

evidence_id: Ice age:124

article: Ice age

evidence: (Current projected consequences of global warming include a largely ice-free Arctic Ocean within 5–20 years, see Arctic shrinkage.)

evidence_id: North Pole:175

article: North Pole

evidence: Reports have also predicted that within a few decades the Arctic Ocean will be entirely free of ice in the summer.


text: “as surface temperatures of the oceans warm up, the immediate response is more water vapor in the atmosphere.

evidence_id: Atmospheric methane:244

article: Atmospheric methane

evidence: This process is enhanced by global warming, because warmer air holds more water vapor than colder air, so the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere increases as it is warmed by the greenhouse effect.

article: Eocene

evidence: These isotope changes occurred due to the release of carbon from the ocean into the atmosphere that led to a temperature increase of 4-8 °C (7-14 °F) at the surface of the ocean.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:68

article: Sea level rise

evidence: The heat needed to raise an average temperature increase of the entire world ocean by 0.01 °C would increase the atmospheric temperature by approximately 10 °C.

evidence_id: Water vapor:113

article: Water vapor

evidence: The upper temperature level is given by the soil or water surface of the earth, which absorbs the incoming sun radiation and warms up, evaporating water.

article: Water

evidence: Water vapor and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere provide a temperature buffer (greenhouse effect) which helps maintain a relatively steady surface temperature.


text: While the north-east, midwest and upper great plains have experienced a 30% increase in heavy rainfall episodes – considered once-in-every-five year downpours – parts of the west, particularly California, have been parched by drought.

article: California

evidence: Water use and conservation in California is a politically divisive issue, as the state experiences periodic droughts and has to balance the demands of its large agricultural and urban sectors, especially in the arid southern portion of the state.

evidence_id: San Joaquin Valley:20

article: San Joaquin Valley

evidence: The valley experienced a severe drought from 2011 to 2017.

evidence_id: San Joaquin Valley:45

article: San Joaquin Valley

evidence: By August 2014, a three-year drought was prompting changes to the agriculture industry in the valley.

evidence_id: Western United States:77

article: Western United States

evidence: However, parts of the West get extremely high amounts of rain or snow, and still other parts are true desert and get less than 5 inches (130 mm) of rain per year.

evidence_id: Western United States:86

article: Western United States

evidence: Drought is much more common in the West than the rest of the United States.


text: The contrast in precipitation between wet and dry regions and between wet and dry seasons will increase, although there may be regional exceptions.

article: Morocco

evidence: Most regions have distinct seasons where summer is usually not spoiled by rain and winter turns wet, snowy and humid with mild, cool to cold temperatures, while spring and fall see warm to mild weather characterised by flowers blooming in spring and falling leaves in autumn.

evidence_id: Tropical monsoon climate:5

article: Tropical monsoon climate

evidence: In essence, a tropical monsoon climate tends to either see more rainfall than a tropical savanna climate or have less pronounced dry seasons.

evidence_id: Tropical monsoon climate:9

article: Tropical monsoon climate

evidence: Regions with this variation of the tropical monsoon climate typically see copious amounts of rain during the wet season(s), usually in the form of frequent thunderstorms.

evidence_id: Tropical savanna climate:8

article: Tropical savanna climate

evidence: There are generally four types of tropical savanna climates: Distinct wet and dry seasons of relatively equal duration.

article: Tundra

evidence: Despite the potential diversity of climates in the ET category involving precipitation, extreme temperatures, and relative wet and dry seasons, this category is rarely subdivided.


text: Some, however, bristle at the belief that because floods and storms have always occurred, they should not be linked to climate change”

evidence_id: 2007 United Kingdom floods:28

article: 2007 United Kingdom floods

evidence: Climate researchers have suggested that the unusual weather leading to the floods may be linked to this year's appearance of La Nina in the Pacific Ocean, and the jet stream being further south than normal.

evidence_id: 2015 South Indian floods:439

article: 2015 South Indian floods

evidence: Although some studies have reported an increase in frequency and intensity of extremes in rainfall during the past 40–50 years, their attribution to global warming is not established."

evidence_id: Climate change denial:62

article: Climate change denial

evidence: To the public, this was related to climate change and the possibility of effective action, but news interest faded.

evidence_id: Climate change denial:63

article: Climate change denial

evidence: Public attention was renewed amidst summer droughts and heat waves when James Hansen testified to a Congressional hearing on 23 June 1988, stating with high confidence that long term warming was underway with severe warming likely within the next 50 years, and warning of likely storms and floods.

evidence_id: Climate change in Australia:2

article: Climate change in Australia

evidence: In 2014, the Bureau of Meteorology released a report on the state of Australia's climate that highlighted several key points, including the significant increase in Australia's temperatures (particularly night-time temperatures) and the increasing frequency of bush fires, droughts and floods, which have all been linked to climate change.


text: This means that the world is now 1C warmer than it was in pre-industrial times

evidence_id: Global warming:21

article: Global warming

evidence: Multiple independently produced instrumental datasets confirm that the 2009–2018 decade was 0.93 ± 0.07 °C warmer than the pre-industrial baseline (1850–1900).

evidence_id: Global warming:225

article: Global warming

evidence: Near- and long-term trends in the global energy system are inconsistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 °C relative to pre-industrial levels.

evidence_id: Global warming:226

article: Global warming

evidence: Current pledges made as part of the Paris Agreement would lead to about 3.0 °C of warming at the end of the 21st century, relative to pre-industrial levels.

evidence_id: Global warming:55

article: Global warming

evidence: Before the Industrial Revolution, naturally occurring amounts of greenhouse gases caused the air near the surface to be warmer by about 33 °C (59 °F) than it would be in their absence.

evidence_id: World Bank:124

article: World Bank

evidence: The planet is now 0.8 °C warmer than in pre-industrial times.


text: The thermal expansion of the oceans, compounded by melting glaciers, resulted in the highest global sea level on record in 2015.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:26

article: Sea level rise

evidence: Since the last glacial maximum about 20,000 years ago, the sea level has risen by more than 125 metres (410 ft), with rates varying from less than a mm/year to 40+ mm/year, as a result of melting ice sheets over Canada and Eurasia.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:3

article: Sea level rise

evidence: This acceleration is due mostly to human-caused global warming, which is driving thermal expansion of seawater and the melting of land-based ice sheets and glaciers.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:4

article: Sea level rise

evidence: Between 1993 and 2018, thermal expansion of the oceans contributed 42% to sea level rise; the melting of temperate glaciers, 21%; Greenland, 15%; and Antarctica, 8%.

evidence_id: Sea level rise:56

article: Sea level rise

evidence: The three main reasons warming causes global sea level to rise are: oceans expand, ice sheets lose ice faster than it forms from snowfall, and glaciers at higher altitudes also melt.

evidence_id: Sea level:63

article: Sea level

evidence: Most of this rise can be attributed to the increase in temperature of the sea and the resulting slight thermal expansion of the upper 500 metres (1,640 feet) of sea water.


text: “The oceans, which absorb more than 90% of the extra CO2 pumped into the atmosphere“

evidence_id: Carbon dioxide:187

article: Carbon dioxide

evidence: Currently, about half of the carbon dioxide released from the burning of fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere and is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans.

evidence_id: Carbon dioxide:203

article: Carbon dioxide

evidence: The oceans act as an enormous carbon sink, and have taken up about a third of CO 2 emitted by human activity.

evidence_id: Carbon dioxide:211

article: Carbon dioxide

evidence: Most of the CO 2 taken up by the ocean, which is about 30% of the total released into the atmosphere, forms carbonic acid in equilibrium with bicarbonate.

evidence_id: Carbon dioxide:215

article: Carbon dioxide

evidence: NOAA states in their May 2008 "State of the science fact sheet for ocean acidification" that: "The oceans have absorbed about 50% of the carbon dioxide (CO 2) released from the burning of fossil fuels, resulting in chemical reactions that lower ocean pH.

article: Sea

evidence: More recently, anthropogenic activities have steadily increased the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere; about 30–40% of the added CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, forming carbonic acid and lowering the pH (now below 8.1) through a process called ocean acidification.


text: The world’s alpine glaciers recorded a net annual loss of ice for the 36th consecutive year and the Greenland ice sheet … experienced melting over more than 50% of its surface.

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:141

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: It was estimated that in the year 2007 Greenland ice sheet melting was higher than ever, 592 km3 (142.0 cu mi).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:35

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: The Greenland Ice Sheet has experienced record melting in recent years since detailed records have been kept and is likely to contribute substantially to sea level rise as well as to possible changes in ocean circulation in the future if this is sustained.

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:36

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: The area of the sheet that experiences melting has been argued to have increased by about 16% between 1979 (when measurements started) and 2002 (most recent data).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:37

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: The area of melting in 2002 broke all previous records.

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:39

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: In 2006, estimated monthly changes in the mass of Greenland's ice sheet suggest that it is melting at a rate of about 239 cubic kilometers (57 cu mi) per year.


text: Greenland ice sheet … would balloon sea levels by around 7m should it disintegrate

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:43

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: If the entire 2,850,000 km3 (684,000 cu mi) of ice were to melt, global sea levels would rise 7.2 m (24 ft).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:46

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: Ice sheet models project that such a warming would initiate the long-term melting of the ice sheet, leading to a complete melting of the ice sheet (over centuries), resulting in a global sea level rise of about 7 metres (23 ft).

evidence_id: Greenland ice sheet:6

article: Greenland ice sheet

evidence: If the entire 2,850,000 cubic kilometres (684,000 cu mi) of ice were to melt, it would lead to a global sea level rise of 7.2 m (24 ft).

article: Greenland

evidence: If the Greenland ice sheet were to melt away completely, the world's sea level would rise by more than 7 m (23 ft).

evidence_id: Ice sheet:21

article: Ice sheet

evidence: The Greenland ice sheet occupies about 82% of the surface of Greenland, and if melted would cause sea levels to rise by 7.2 metres.


text: The rapid changes in the climate may have profound consequences for humans and other species… Severe drought caused food shortages for millions of people in Ethiopia, with a lack of rainfall resulting in “intense and widespread” forest fires in Indonesia that belched out a vast quantity of greenhouse gas

article: Drought

evidence: According to the WWF, the combination of climate change and deforestation increases the drying effect of dead trees that fuels forest fires.

article: Drought

evidence: Recurring droughts leading to desertification in East Africa have created grave ecological catastrophes, prompting food shortages in 1984–85, 2006 and 2011.

article: Ethiopia

evidence: The ensuing government suffered several coups, uprisings, wide-scale drought, and a huge refugee problem.

article: Ethiopia

evidence: A 17-year-long civil war, along with severe drought, negatively impacted Ethiopia's environmental conditions, leading to even greater habitat degradation.

article: Famine

evidence: A primary cause of the famine (one of the largest seen in the country) is that Ethiopia (and the surrounding Horn) was still recovering from the droughts which occurred in the mid-late 1970s.


text: “Typically, in such an attribution study, scientists will use sets of climate models — one set including the factors that drive human global warming and the other including purely “natural” factors — and see if an event like the one in question is more likely to occur in the first set of models.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:101

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: For example, when climate model simulations of the last century include all of the major influences on climate, both human-induced and natural, they can reproduce many important features of observed climate change patterns.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:103

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: The clear message from fingerprint studies is that the observed warming over the last half-century cannot be explained by natural factors, and is instead caused primarily by human factors.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:193

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Models are, however, able to simulate the observed 20th century changes in temperature when they include all of the most important external forcings, including human influences and natural forcings.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:76

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Climate models forced by natural factors and increased greenhouse gases and aerosols reproduce the observed global temperature changes; those forced by natural factors alone do not.

evidence_id: Attribution of recent climate change:99

article: Attribution of recent climate change

evidence: Therefore, climate models are used to study how individual factors affect climate.


text: “Earlier this month, NASA scientists provided a visualization of a startling climate change trend — the Earth is getting greener, as viewed from space, especially in its rapidly warming northern regions.

article: Antarctica

evidence: NASA's Climate Change website indicates a compatible overall trend of greater than 100 gigatonnes of ice loss per year since 2002.

article: Earth

evidence: This last phenomenon is known as the greenhouse effect: trace molecules within the atmosphere serve to capture thermal energy emitted from the ground, thereby raising the average temperature.

article: Earth

evidence: The perception of Earth shifted again in the 20th century when humans first viewed it from orbit, and especially with photographs of Earth returned by the Apollo program.

evidence_id: Global warming:362

article: Global warming

evidence: Climate change is more accurate scientifically to describe the various effects of greenhouse gases on the world because it includes extreme weather, storms and changes in rainfall patterns, ocean acidification and sea level.".

evidence_id: Hubble Space Telescope:5

article: Hubble Space Telescope

evidence: It has recorded some of the most detailed visible light images, allowing a deep view into space.


text: It is clear, then, that greening is emerging as a factor with the potential to blunt some of the worst impacts of human greenhouse gas emissions.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:0

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: The effects of global warming or climate damage include far-reaching and long-lasting changes to the natural environment, to ecosystems and human societies caused directly or indirectly by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

evidence_id: Greenhouse gas:130

article: Greenhouse gas

evidence: It is likely that anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) warming, such as that due to elevated greenhouse gas levels, has had a discernible influence on many physical and biological systems.

article: Pollution

evidence: Humans have ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the consequences of global warming, a major climate report concluded.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:139

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: European Science Foundation in a 2007 position paper states: There is now convincing evidence that since the industrial revolution, human activities, resulting in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases have become a major agent of climate change ... On-going and increased efforts to mitigate climate change through reduction in greenhouse gases are therefore crucial.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:692

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: While ‘climate change’ can be due to natural forces or human activity, there is now substantial evidence to indicate that human activity – and specifically increased greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions – is a key factor in the pace and extent of global temperature increases.


text: Arctic greening was recently cited, in a major report by the U.S. Geological Survey, as the central reason that the state of Alaska, despite worsening wildfires and more thaw of permafrost, might still be able to stow away more carbon than it loses over the course of the 21st century.”

evidence_id: Alaska North Slope:8

article: Alaska North Slope

evidence: The source rock for the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field and neighboring reserves is also a potential source for tight oil and shale gas – possibly containing "up to 2 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil and up to 80 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2012 U.S. Geological Survey report."

evidence_id: Arctic methane emissions:72

article: Arctic methane emissions

evidence: reported permafrost was thawing quicker than predicted, and was happening even to thousands years old soil; They estimated that abrupt permafrost thawing could release between 60 and 100 gigatonnes of carbon by 2300, they mentioned gaps in the research and that abrupt permafrost thawing should have priority research and urgency.

evidence_id: Climate change feedback:52

article: Climate change feedback

evidence: In 2008, a research expedition for the American Geophysical Union detected levels of methane up to 100 times above normal in the Siberian Arctic, likely being released by methane clathrates being released by holes in a frozen 'lid' of seabed permafrost, around the outfall of the Lena River and the area between the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea.

evidence_id: Climate change in the Arctic:54

article: Climate change in the Arctic

evidence: A new study used field observations, radiocarbon dating, and remote sensing to account for thermokarst lakes, the authors concluded that, "..methane and carbon dioxide emissions from abrupt thaw beneath thermokarst lakes will more than double radiative forcing from circumpolar permafrost-soil carbon fluxes this century."

evidence_id: Global warming controversy:226

article: Global warming controversy

evidence: One theory is that the climate may reach a "tipping point" where positive feedback effects lead to runaway global warming; such feedbacks include decreased reflection of solar radiation as sea ice melts, exposing darker seawater, and the potential release of large volumes of methane from thawing permafrost.


text: Any reasonable person can recognize both positives and negatives among the policy proposals of both Tories and Labour.

evidence_id: 2015 United Kingdom general election:224

article: 2015 United Kingdom general election

evidence: Less attention was given to policy areas that might have been problematic for the Conservatives, like the NHS or housing (policy topics favoured by Labour) or immigration (favoured by UKIP).

evidence_id: 2017 United Kingdom general election:180

article: 2017 United Kingdom general election

evidence: In a speech in Tynemouth the next day, May said Labour had "deserted" working-class voters, criticised Labour's policy proposals and said Britain's future depended on making a success of Brexit.

evidence_id: 2019 United Kingdom general election:123

article: 2019 United Kingdom general election

evidence: The Labour Party proposed a renegotiation of the withdrawal agreement (towards a closer post-withdrawal relationship with the EU) and would then put this forward as an option in a referendum alongside the option of remaining in the EU.

evidence_id: 2019 United Kingdom general election:201

article: 2019 United Kingdom general election

evidence: The Liberal Democrats, the Greens, the SNP and Labour all support a ban on fracking, whilst the Conservatives propose approving fracking on a case-by-case basis.

evidence_id: Conservative Party (UK):348

article: Conservative Party (UK)

evidence: Both Cameron and Theresa May have aimed at helping families achieve a work-home balance and have previously proposed to offer all parents 12 months parental leave, to be shared by parents as they choose.


text: Over time, climate becomes a net problem: by the 2070s, the UN Climate Panel finds that global warming will likely cause damage equivalent to 0.2 per cent to 2 per cent of global GDP.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:269

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: (2001) concluded that world GDP would change by plus or minus a few percent for a small increase in global mean temperature (up to around 2 °C relative to the 1990 temperature level).

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:277

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: In 2019 the National Bureau of Economic Research found that increase in average global temperature by 0.04 °C per year, in absence of mitigation policies, will reduce world real GDP per capita by 7.22% by 2100.

evidence_id: Global warming:1262

article: Global warming

evidence: "Large potential reduction in economic damages under UN mitigation targets".

evidence_id: Global warming:19

article: Global warming

evidence: Climate proxy records show that natural variations offset the early effects of the Industrial Revolution, so there was little net warming between the 18th century and the mid-19th century, when thermometer records began to provide global coverage.

evidence_id: Global warming:67

article: Global warming

evidence: The 10th Emissions Gap Report issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) predicts that if emissions continue to increase at the same rate as they have in 2010–2020, global temperatures would rise by as much as 4° by 2100.


text: “Because CO₂ acts as a fertilizer, as much as half of all vegetated land is persistently greener today.

article: Fertilizer

evidence: A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin (other than liming materials) that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants.

article: Fertilizer

evidence: Ammonia is produced from natural gas and air.

article: Fertilizer

evidence: The greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are produced during the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizer.

article: Fertilizer

evidence: Carbon, hydrogen and oxygen are widely available as water and carbon dioxide.

article: Fertilizer

evidence: This ammonia is used as a feedstock for all other nitrogen fertilizers, such as anhydrous ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and urea (CO(NH2)2).


text: precipitation from global warming will make the world much greener

evidence_id: Global warming:110

article: Global warming

evidence: After an initial warming due to emissions of greenhouse gases, the atmosphere will hold more water.

evidence_id: Global warming:76

article: Global warming

evidence: Changing the type of vegetation in a region impacts the local temperature by changing how much sunlight gets reflected back into space, called albedo, and how much heat is lost by evaporation.

article: Sahara

evidence: The area is next expected to become green in about 15,000 years (17,000 AD).

article: Sahara

evidence: At present (2000 AD), we are in a dry period, but it is expected that the Sahara will become green again in 15000 years (17000 AD).

evidence_id: Urban heat island:80

article: Urban heat island

evidence: With the temperature of the nearby buildings sometimes reaching over 50 degrees different from the near-surface air temperature, precipitation will warm rapidly, causing runoff into nearby streams, lakes and rivers (or other bodies of water) to provide excessive thermal pollution.


text: A recent Nature study expecting more severe hurricanes from global warming still found that damages would halve from 0.04 per cent to 0.02 per cent of global GDP, because the increased ferocity would be more than made up by increased prosperity and resilience.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming on humans:194

article: Effects of global warming on humans

evidence: (2008) normalized mainland U.S. hurricane damage from 1900 to 2005 to 2005 values and found no remaining trend of increasing absolute damage.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:258

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: Nevertheless, one recent study has found that potential global economic gains if countries implement mitigation strategies to comply with the 2°C target set at the Paris Agreement are in the vicinity of US$17,000 billion per year up to 2100 compared to a very high emission scenario.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:271

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: (2001) projected losses in world GDP for a medium increase in global mean temperature (above 2–3 °C relative to the 1990 temperature level), with increasing losses for greater temperature increases.

article: Effects of global warming

article: Global warming


text: “Yet, a new study of 60 climate models and scenarios shows this warning fails to take into account the fact that global warming will mean precipitation increases.

evidence_id: Climate change and agriculture:258

article: Climate change and agriculture

evidence: For example, many models are running simulations based on doubled carbon dioxide projections, temperatures raise ranging from 1 °C up to 5 °C, and with rainfall levels an increase or decrease of 20%.

evidence_id: Effects of global warming:72

article: Effects of global warming

evidence: Although increased rainful will not occur everywhere, models suggest most of the world will have a 16-24% increase in heavy precipitation intensity by 2100.

evidence_id: Global warming:141

article: Global warming

evidence: Past models have underestimated the rate of Arctic shrinkage and underestimated the rate of precipitation increase.

evidence_id: Physical impacts of climate change:26

article: Physical impacts of climate change

evidence: This large-scale pattern of change is a robust feature present in nearly all of the simulations conducted by the world's climate modeling groups for the 4th Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is also evident in observed 20th century precipitation trends.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:591

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: Changes in the climate system that are confidently predicted in response to increases in greenhouse gases include increases in mean surface air temperature, increases in global mean rates of precipitation and evaporation, rising sea level, and changes in the biosphere.


text: No one ever says it, but in many ways global warming will be a good thing

evidence_id: Climate change denial:148

article: Climate change denial

evidence: Even if the current and future projected human effects on Earth's climate are not negligible, the changes are generally going to be good for us.

evidence_id: Global catastrophic risk:58

article: Global catastrophic risk

evidence: It is a global good, so even if a large nation decreases it, that nation will only enjoy a small fraction of the benefit of doing so.

evidence_id: Global warming:170

article: Global warming

evidence: One potential source of abrupt climate change would be the rapid release of methane and carbon dioxide from permafrost, which would amplify global warming.

evidence_id: Global warming:243

article: Global warming

evidence: Adaptation is especially important in developing countries since they are predicted to bear the brunt of the effects of global warming.

evidence_id: Global warming:276

article: Global warming

evidence: In the scientific literature, there is an overwhelming consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused mainly by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases.


text: in a letter to The Times from Lord Krebs and company, essentially telling the newspaper to stop reporting less-than-negative climate stories.

evidence_id: The New York Times:357

article: The New York Times

evidence: Former The New York Times executive editor Bill Keller decided not to report the piece after being pressured by the Bush administration and being advised not to do so by The New York Times Washington bureau chief Philip Taubman.

evidence_id: The New York Times:377

article: The New York Times

evidence: During the Iranian nuclear crisis the newspaper minimized the "negative processes" of the United States while overemphasizing similar processes of Iran.

evidence_id: The Washington Times:114

article: The Washington Times

evidence: During the Climatic Research Unit email controversy (also known as "Climategate") in 2009 in the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Times wrote in an editorial "these revelations of fudged science should have a cooling effect on global-warming hysteria and the panicked policies that are being pushed forward to address the unproven theory."

evidence_id: The Washington Times:124

article: The Washington Times

evidence: In 1993, the Times published articles purporting to debunk climate change.

evidence_id: The Washington Times:7

article: The Washington Times

evidence: It has also published many columns which reject the scientific consensuses on climate change, on ozone depletion, and on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke.


text: The projection that much of the Great Barrier Reef could perish within the next few decades could turn out to be too pessimistic, since other research has shown that some species of corals are surprisingly resilient to the stress from changing ocean temperatures.

evidence_id: Coral bleaching:36

article: Coral bleaching

evidence: Large coral colonies such as Porites are able to withstand extreme temperature shocks, while fragile branching corals such Acropora are far more susceptible to stress following a temperature change.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:103

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: Bleaching events in benthic coral communities (deeper than 20 metres or 66 feet) in the Great Barrier reef are not as well documented as those at shallower depths, but recent research has shown that benthic communities are just as negatively impacted in the face of rising ocean temperatures.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:14

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: A March 2016 report stated that coral bleaching was more widespread than previously thought, seriously affecting the northern parts of the reef as a result of warming ocean temperatures.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:16

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: In March 2017, the journal Nature published a paper showing that huge sections of an 800-kilometre (500 mi) stretch in the northern part of the reef had died in the course of 2016 due to high water temperatures, an event that the authors put down to the effects of global climate change.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:180

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: These forms of pollution have made the reef less resilient to climate change.


text: a new study by scientists at the Australian Research Council finds that the ongoing bleaching event is mainly due to human-caused global warming, and that if global warming proceeds as currently expected, “large parts” of the Great Barrier Reef could die by the mid-2030s.

evidence_id: Climate change in Australia:250

article: Climate change in Australia

evidence: A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the reef has experienced unprecedented rates of bleaching over the past two decades, and additional warming of only 1 °C is anticipated to cause considerable losses or contractions of species associated with coral communities.

article: Great Barrier Reef

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:144

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: International Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS) in 2007, issued a Statement on Environment and Sustainable Growth: As reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), most of the observed global warming since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human-produced emission of greenhouse gases and this warming will continue unabated if present anthropogenic emissions continue or, worse, expand without control.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:77

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: Human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), and secondarily the clearing of land, have increased the concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, and other heat-trapping ("greenhouse") gases in the atmosphere...There is international scientific consensus that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.


text: Great Barrier Reef may perish by 2030s

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:17

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: The percentage of baby corals being born on the Great Barrier Reef dropped drastically in 2018 and scientists are describing it as the early stage of a "huge natural selection event unfolding".

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:21

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: The last report was published in 2019.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:499

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: "Great Barrier Reef has 'lost half its coral since 1985'".

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:636

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: "The Reef 2050 Plan".

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:648

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: "Great Barrier Reef 2050 plan no longer achievable due to climate change, experts say".


text: It has occurred during the warmest year on record, which occurred in 2015, and the two most unusually mild months on Earth, which took place in January and February, respectively.”

evidence_id: 2006 European heat wave:139

article: 2006 European heat wave

evidence: April 2007 was also the warmest month in history, the average temperature being 5 °C warmer than normal.

evidence_id: 2006 European heat wave:163

article: 2006 European heat wave

evidence: December, January and February also brought extremely mild weather making the winter of 2006/2007 the warmest in recorded history.

evidence_id: 2006 European heat wave:201

article: 2006 European heat wave

evidence: December 2006 and January 2007 were the warmest months in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Kazan and other cities of European Russia.

evidence_id: 2006 European heat wave:250

article: 2006 European heat wave

evidence: Every winter month (December, January, February) had a CET above 5 °C (41 °F), only the second time this has happened since 1900 (after 1988/89, although November 1988 was colder than any month of 2006/07) and only the sixth since 1659 (1685–86, 1833–34, 1833–34, and 1868/69 also).

evidence_id: 2014–16 El Niño event:283

article: 2014–16 El Niño event

evidence: "2014 one of the warmest years on record globally".


text: A World Heritage site, it is currently under assault from unusually hot ocean temperatures,”

evidence_id: Orlando, Florida:153

article: Orlando, Florida

evidence: The area's warm and humid climate is caused primarily by its low elevation, its position relatively close to the Tropic of Cancer, and its location in the center of a peninsula.

evidence_id: Orlando, Florida:157

article: Orlando, Florida

evidence: The area's humidity acts as a buffer, usually preventing actual temperatures from exceeding 100 °F (38 °C), but also pushing the heat index to over 110 °F (43 °C).

evidence_id: St. Louis:184

article: St. Louis

evidence: The city experiences hot, humid summers, and chilly to cold winters.

evidence_id: St. Louis:185

article: St. Louis

evidence: It is subject to both cold Arctic air and hot, humid tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico.

evidence_id: St. Louis:186

article: St. Louis

evidence: The average annual temperature recorded at nearby Lambert–St.


text: Coral bleaching has devastated 93% of the Great Barrier Reef

evidence_id: Coral bleaching:50

article: Coral bleaching

evidence: An overall analysis of coral loss found that coral populations on the Great Barrier Reef had declined by 50.7% from 1985 to 2012, but with only about 10% of that decline attributable to bleaching, and the remaining 90% caused about equally by tropical cyclones and by predation by crown-of-thorns starfishes.

evidence_id: Coral bleaching:513

article: Coral bleaching

evidence: "Coral Bleaching Has Ravaged Half of Hawaii's Coral Reefs".

evidence_id: Coral bleaching:52

article: Coral bleaching

evidence: These temperatures have caused the most severe and widespread coral bleaching ever recorded in the Great Barrier reef.

evidence_id: Coral bleaching:8

article: Coral bleaching

evidence: In 2016, bleaching of coral on the Great Barrier Reef killed between 29 and 50 percent of the reef's coral.

evidence_id: Great Barrier Reef:104

article: Great Barrier Reef

evidence: Five Great Barrier Reef species of large benthic corals were found bleached under elevated temperatures, affirming that benthic corals are vulnerable to thermal stress.


text: Higher temperatures, we’re told, will be deadly—killing “thousands to tens of thousands” of Americans

evidence: Over the course of approximately 100 days, at least 500,000 people were killed.

article: July 1966

evidence: A heat wave began across much of the midwestern United States, killing hundreds of people over a six-day period where temperatures remained above 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

article: Philippines

evidence: The war, as well as the ensuing cholera epidemic, resulted in the deaths of thousands of combatants as well as tens of thousands of civilians.

evidence_id: Scientific consensus on climate change:234

article: Scientific consensus on climate change

evidence: Each year, about 800,000 people die from causes attributable to urban air pollution, 1.8 million from diarrhoea resulting from lack of access to clean water supply, sanitation, and poor hygiene, 3.5 million from malnutrition and approximately 60,000 in natural disasters.

article: Unit 731

evidence: This military aerial spraying killed tens of thousands of people with bubonic plague epidemics.


text: cold kills many more people than heat.

evidence_id: 2015 Indian heat wave:15

article: 2015 Indian heat wave

evidence: In 2013, 1,216 people died due to the heat.

evidence_id: Captain Cold:58

article: Captain Cold

evidence: After the elder Snart insults him and his mother, calling them weak, Cold punches him, but finds himself unable to kill him, instead getting Heat Wave to do it.

evidence_id: Cold wave:10

article: Cold wave

evidence: Both cold waves and heat waves cause deaths, though different groups of people may be susceptible to different weather events.

evidence_id: Cold wave:12

article: Cold wave

evidence: Globally, more people die during hot weather than cold weather.

evidence_id: Urban heat island:108

article: Urban heat island

evidence: Within the United States alone, an average of 1,000 people die each year due to extreme heat.