Statistics show that trillions of tons worth of ice have been lost over the past 50 years. The burning of fossil fuels has produced billions of tons heat-trapping gasses into the atmosphere, and hundreds of thousands have died as a result of heat and other weather catastrophes caused by climate change.
In 1992, more than 100 leaders from around the world gathered in Rio de Janeiro to discuss global warming. There was a "huge feeling of well-being," and that everyone could do something. Oren Lyons, a faithkeeper for the Turtle Clan Of The Onondaga Nation and one of the representatives representing Native Americans at summit, said that there was "hope really".
The activist, now 91, said that all hope is lost. "The ice melts." Everything is terrible. ... Thirty-years of degrading."
The Associated Press has analyzed data from scientific reports and government figures to show "how much Earth we lost," according to William K. Reilly (ex-head of the American delegation) who was a part of The Associated Press analysis. This data was compiled by The Associated Press.
The Earth Summit launched the international climate negotiations that culminated with the 2015 Paris agreement. It resumes Sunday in Glasgow (Scotland) where leaders will attempt to intensify efforts to reduce carbon pollution.
It was obvious that climate change was a problem back in 1992. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres stated this month to the AP. "The future is now and it is past our time."
Two agreements have been reached by world leaders to reduce climate change. A protocol was established in Kyoto, 1997 to reduce carbon pollution for developed countries. It did not apply to poorer countries. Because of the ratification requirements, it was not ratified until 2005. The Paris Agreement made it mandatory for every country to set its own emission goals in 2015.
Both cases involved the United States, which is a country with the highest levels of pollution, who helped to negotiate the agreements but then pulled out when a Republican president was elected. Since then, the U.S. has rejoined Paris.
Based on multi-year averaging and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the annual global temperature has risen almost 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit (0.6 degree Celsius) in 1992. The Earth has warmed up more in the past 29 years than it did in the previous 110. The world has broken eight of the global annual high temperature records since 1992.
According to NOAA, Alaska's average temperature has risen 2.5 degrees (1.4 degrees Celsius), since 1992. According to the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program, while the Arctic has been warming twice as fast than the rest of the world, it is now warming three times faster in certain seasons.
This heat is melting Earth’s ice. According to Andrew Shepherd, a climate scientist at the University of Leeds, Earth has lost 36,000,000,000 tons of ice since 1992 (33 trillion tonnes). This includes sea ice in Antarctica and Arctic that melts more in summer than it used too, shrinking giant ice sheets in Greenland, Antarctica, as well as melting glaciers.
Michael Zemp, the World Glacier Monitoring Service's chief, suggested that Shepherd's numbers might be a bit low. He estimates that the glaciers have lost almost 9.5 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992 (8.6 trillion metric tonnes), which is about one trillion more than Shepherd's numbers.
According to the University of Colorado, the average sea level in the world has increased by 3.7 inches (95 mils) over 1992. This is due to more ice melting in the oceans and water expanding as it heats up. Although it may not seem like much, it is enough to cover the United States to a depth of approximately 11 feet (3 meters), according to Steve Nerem, University of Colorado sea-level researcher.
The United States has seen wildfires burn more than twice as much in recent years. Wildfires have burned an average of 2.7million acres per year between 1983 and 1992. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, this average grew to as high as 7.5 million acres between 2011 and 2020.
Dr. Maria Neira, Director of the World Heath Organization's Environment, Climate Change and Health Program, stated that "the unhealthy choices that are killing planet are also killing our people."
Since 1992, the United States has experienced 265 weather events that have caused at least $1 million in damage (adjusted to 2021 dollars), including 18 this year. These disasters caused 11,991 deaths, and cost $1.8 trillion. The United States experienced three of these billion-dollar weather catastrophes per year between 1980 and 1992. The average number of such weather disasters in the United States has been nine per year since 1993.
Nearly 8,000 disasters caused by climate, water, and weather have occurred worldwide, killing 563 735 people, according to the EMDAT disaster database.
Researchers in medicine looked at 732 cities around the world and determined how many people died from extra heat caused by climate change. On average, since 1991, there have been 9.702 heat deaths due to global warming per year in these cities. This adds up over 281,000 climate-caused heat death deaths since 1992.
However, that's only a fraction of the real reality, according to Ana Vicedo–Cabrera (epidemiciologist at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Bern, Switzerland). Researchers calculated that 0.58% of global deaths are caused by climate change in the four hottest months.
She estimated that this would be equivalent to approximately 100,000 heat deaths per year due to climate change over the past 29 years.
Officials from WHO said that these figures are reasonable and calculated that the death toll due to climate change will increase to 250,000 per year by 2030.
Scientists believe this is due to heat-trapping gasses. According to NOAA, carbon dioxide levels have increased by 17%, from 353 parts per Million in September 1992 to 413 percent in September 2021. Since 1992, the agency's annual greenhouse gases index, which tracks six gases and weighs them according how much heat they trap, has almost doubled to 20%.
According to the Global Carbon Project (a group of scientists that track carbon dioxide emissions), the world has released more than 885 million tons (803 billion metric tonnes) of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning to date.
The Native American activist Lyons was pessimistic and stated that he believed this meeting in Glasgow was the last chance.
