On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely" played a role.
The addition of that single word "very" did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over whether humans are warming the planet, but instead over what to do about it. In recent months, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases. The subject had a red-carpet moment when former Vice President Al Gore's documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth," was awarded an Oscar; and the Supreme Court made its first global warming-related decision, ruling 5 to 4 that the Environmental Protection Agency had not justified its position that it was not authorized to regulate carbon dioxide.
The greenhouse effect has been part of the earth's workings since its earliest days. Gases like carbon dioxide and methane allow sunlight to reach the earth, but prevent some of the resulting heat from radiating back out into space. Without the greenhouse effect, the planet would never have warmed enough to allow life to form. But as ever larger amounts of carbon dioxide have been released along with the development of industrial economies, the atmosphere has grown warmer at an accelerating rate: Since 1970, temperatures have gone up at nearly three times the average for the 20th century.
The latest report from the climate panel predicted that the global climate is likely to rise between 3.5 and 8 degrees Fahrenheit if the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere reaches twice the level of 1750. By 2100, sea levels are likely to rise between 7 to 23 inches, it said, and the changes now underway will continue for centuries to come.
A growing array of military leaders, Arctic experts and lawmakers say the United States is losing its ability to patrol and safeguard Arctic waters.
August 17, 2008worldNewsA new report says the country is brimming with opportunities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, while saving money at the same time.
November 30, 2007businessNewsIn its final and most powerful report, an international panel details mounting risks in specific and forceful language, scientists said.
November 17, 2007scienceNewsThe report said warming and its harmful consequences could be substantially blunted by prompt action.
February 3, 2007scienceNews
Scientists are unnerved by this summer?s massive polar ice melt, its implications and their ability to predict it.
The best way to make America stronger is to work together to address an urgent crisis facing the world.
October 11, 2009An exhibition at the Arts Exchange in White Plains features the winners of the 2008 Fumetto Internationales Comix-Festival of Switzerland.
October 11, 2009
Tim DeChristopher decided to make bids on oil and gas leases with no interest in drilling. Now he may pay for it.
October 10, 2009Collecting logs of sea captains will give us a valuable portrait of the seas over time and help provide a clearer vision of future climate change.
October 9, 2009Global warming will not necessarily change the amount of fish caught half a century from now, but it will shift catches away from the tropics toward the poles.
October 9, 2009Government ministers in the Maldives are preparing for an unprecedented underwater cabinet meeting intended to highlight the threat of global warming.
October 8, 2009Environmental groups hailed a decision by four of the world’s largest meat producers to ban the purchase of cattle from newly deforested areas of Brazil’s Amazon rain forest.
October 7, 2009Today’s youth are growing up in the shadow of three bombs the nuclear, debt and climate bombs any one of which could go off and set in motion a radical change in their lives.
October 7, 2009If anyone was still straining to see where the fault lines lay in the American debate over climate change, last week provided some clarity.
October 5, 2009The country has presented new plans to reduce its emissions and is trying to reposition itself as a “deal maker,” not a “deal breaker” on climate issues.
October 4, 2009
An aide to President Obama said there was virtually no chance of a bill passing before global talks in December.
October 3, 2009Half a century after they began recovering from industrial-scale hunting, walruses are facing a new threat.
October 3, 2009The message from Washington to major emitters of greenhouse gases in this country is increasingly clear that emissions are coming down.
October 2, 2009Researchers also concluded that rapid population growth was more responsible for the severe water shortages than rainfall patterns were.
October 2, 2009The Environmental Protection Agency plan, long anticipated and highly controversial, would regulate emissions from thousands of power plants.
October 1, 2009The draft of a bill that Senate Democrats will introduce Wednesday increases an interim target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
September 30, 2009Several responsible members of the United States Chamber of Commerce are quitting because of the chamber’s attacks on legislation to curb emissions.
September 30, 2009Exelon, the largest U.S. operator of nuclear plants, became the third major utility to cancel its membership in the Chamber of Commerce because of differences over climate policies.
September 29, 2009As climate scientists have begun reaching consensus that Earth’s outlook is getting worse at greater speed, the need for government action is thrown into sharper relief.
September 28, 2009The European carbon trading system has been the most ''costly climate policy program in the world,'' according to the head of BusinessEurope, a powerful confederation of industry and employer groups.
September 28, 2009The slow-motion demise of Baishui Glacier No. 1 on the Tibetan Plateau will have far-reaching consequences.
September 26, 2009
A closer look at the case of Alan Carlin, a global warming contrarian at the E.P.A., paints a more complicated case than has been widely publicized.
September 25, 2009Saving the planet won’t come free (although the early stages of conservation actually might). But it won’t cost all that much either.
September 25, 2009
In a worse-case projection, a Vietnamese government report says that more than one-third of the Mekong Delta could be submerged if sea levels were to rise by three feet.
September 24, 2009A conference that generated the equivalent of 461 tons of carbon dioxide will end up helping a rural power project in India.
September 23, 2009The Environmental Protection Agency says the data would cover most of the greenhouse gases in the United States linked to global warming.
September 23, 2009The United States and China must lead the way to an effective global response to the clear global threat of climate change.
September 23, 2009Progress on a global climate treaty may be difficult at a time when temperatures have been stable for a decade.
September 23, 2009A ruling overturns an earlier decision that any action should be taken by the legislative branch, not the judicial one.
September 22, 2009The global recession as well as government actions were cited as factors in the falloff in greenhouse gases.
September 22, 2009Officials of several European countries have cited what they see as a lack of political will on the part of the United States to adequately address climate change.
September 21, 2009
As they prepare for a climate meeting, the last thing many stakeholders in the international community want to hear about is American reluctance.
September 21, 2009
Denmark’s minister of climate and energy will host United Nations-sponsored global climate treaty negotiations in December.
September 20, 2009As nations gather for a major summit meeting on climate change, none want to take the lead in fighting for significant international targets.
September 20, 2009The world needs a fair, effective and ambitious deal in Copenhagen.
September 18, 2009SEARCH 2477 ARTICLES ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING:
Climate change could bring longer-lasting disruptions to millions of people living in Vietnam's Mekong Delta than generations of warfare.
Andrew C. Revkin reports Tuesday from the United Nations, where world leaders have gathered to discuss climate change.
At the United Nations in New York, about 100 heads of state gathered to discuss the issue of climate change.
In Brazil's breadbasket, Mato Grosso, there are efforts to fight climate change by paying landowners to preserve forests.
As climate change reaches deep in the Amazon, the Kamayura indians struggle to adjust.
Photos and audio from the Polaris Project, which is training arctic scientists in Siberia.
The G8 nations have agreed that by 2050, developed nations will reduce emissions by 80 percent and they are committed to limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.
Glenn Loury, left, of Brown University and Brink Lindsey of the Cato Institute critique the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill.
Soot — also known as black carbon — from millions of villages like Kohlua, India, is emerging as a major source of global climate change.
Speaking days before her trip to Asia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out a broad agenda for persistent engagement with Asian countries to solve global problems.
Global warming has felt like breaking news a few times in recent years, but the first big pulse of coverage and public attention came in 1988.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its latest report on Feb. 2, which provided a grim and powerful assessment of the future of the planet. The Times' Andrew C. Revkin answered readers' questions and responded to comments.
In a series of articles, a team of Times reporters described how the world is, and is not, moving toward a more secure, and less environmentally damaging, relationship with energy. Several of the writers responded to questions and comments
What should be done to address the world’s future energy needs? Andrew C. Revkin discusses the issues with readers.
Malawi, India, the Netherlands and Australia will experience global warming in very different ways.
Bill Clinton sits down with New York Times reporter Andrew C. Revkin after announcing his new plan to fight global climate change at the Large Cities Climate Summit in New York.
Science reporter Andy Revkin examines the long-term social consequences of rising temperatures and seas around the globe.
Dr. James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, says the Bush administration tried to stop him from talking about emissions linked to global warming.
Andrew C. Revkin reports on his 2003 trip to the North Pole Environmental Observatory.
How can we protect the planet for our children? Andrew C. Revkin looked at the latest research on global warming for AARP The Magazine.
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