Power Plants

Forty percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions stem from electricity production. Ninety-three percent of
the electric industry emissions result from burning coal. According to the EPA coal-fired power plants,
municipal and medical waste incineration account for two-thirds of U.S. mercury emissions.

Transportation

EPA reports state that thirty-three percent of U.S. emissions come from the transportation of people
and goods.

Farming

Industrial farming and ranching releases huge levels of methane and carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere. Farming contributes forty percent of the methane and twenty percent of the carbon
dioxide to worldwide emissions.

Deforestation

Deforestation to use wood for building materials, paper and fuel increases global warming in two ways --
the release of carbon dioxide during the deforestation process and the reduction in the amount of
carbon dioxide that forests can capture.

Fertilizers

The use of nitrogen-rich fertilizers increases the amount of heat cropland can store. Nitrogen oxides can
trap up to 300 times more heat than carbon dioxide. Sixty-two percent of nitrous oxide released comes
from agricultural byproducts.

Oil Drilling

Burn-off from the oil drilling industry impacts the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere. Fossil
fuel retrieval, processing and distribution accounts for roughly eight percent of carbon dioxide and thirty
percent of methane pollution.

Natural Gas Drilling

Touted as a cleaner fuel source, natural gas drilling causes massive air pollution in states like Wyoming;
the hydraulic fracturing technique used to extract natural gas from shale deposits pollutes ground water
sources as well.

Permafrost

The melting of permafrost releases tons of trapped green house gases which further speeds up the
melting of more permafrost. Scientists calculate that approximately five-hundred gigatons of carbon is
trapped in the Siberian permafrost alone. A single gigaton equals one billion tons.

Garbage

As trash breaks down in landfills, it releases methane and nitrous oxide gases. Approximately eighteen
percent of methane gas in the atmosphere comes from waste disposal and treatment.

Volcanic Eruption

Volcanoes expel large quantities of carbon dioxide when they erupt. Volcanoes have an overall small
effect on global warming and an eruption causes a short-term global cooling as ash in the air reflects
greater amounts of solar energy.

Carbon Dioxide

408 parts per million (continuously increasing)

This level is at their highest in 650000 years. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an important heat-trapping
(greenhouse) gas, which is released through human activities such as deforestation and burning fossil
fuels, as well as natural processes such as respiration and volcanic eruptions.

Global Temperature

0.9 c

Seventeen of the 18 warmest years in the 136-year record all have occurred since 2001, with the
exception of 1998. The year 2016 ranks as the warmest on record with 0.99.
Arctic Sea Ice

4.80 M km2 current area

Arctic sea ice reaches its minimum each September. September Arctic sea ice is now declining at a rate
of 13.2% per decade, relative to the 1981 to 2010 average. The 2012 extent is the lowest in the satellite
record with 3.40M km2.

Sea Level

3.2mm per year increase

Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting
ice sheets and glaciers and the expansion of seawater as it warms. Global average sea level has risen
nearly 7 inches over the past 100 years.

Ice Sheets

413 gigatons per year dec

Polar ice sheets are losing mass.