Climate Change Map 2007

The scientific evidence is clear: Earth's surface temperatures are warming at a rate that signals a decisive shift in the global climate, a change expected to last for centuries. The climate is changing faster than ever before, and human activity is the primary cause. The burning of fossil fuels has flooded the atmosphere with heat-trapping carbon dioxide, causing the planet's average temperature to rise by 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century, much of it in the last 30 years. This informative map, released in October 2007 as one half of a two-map set with "Greenhouse Earth," reveals evidence suggesting that unless CO2 emissions are reduced, the planet will likely warm even faster, fundamentally changing the world we live in.