Climate Change Facts According to the EPA’s Endangerment Finding

Human Activity Has Increased Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere

• Heat-trapping greenhouse gases are now at record-high levels in the atmosphere compared to the recent and distant past.

• These high atmospheric levels are the clear result of human activity.

• Average global carbon dioxide concentrations have increased about 38 percent from pre-industrial levels to 2009, and almost all of this is due to human emissions.

• Atmospheric concentrations of the two most important, directly emitted, long-lived greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide and methane—are well above the natural range over at least the last 650,000 years.

• Projected atmospheric concentrations of the six greenhouse gases show an increase under all scenarios by 2030 compared to 2000.

The Climate is Warming

• Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as evidenced by increases in:

o Global average air and ocean temperatures

o Widespread melting of snow and ice

o Rising global average sea level

• Global surface temperatures have risen by 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the last 100 years.

• Eight of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2001.

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