Numbers for pondering, 22 June 2017 edition

(Click hyperlinked numbers for more information…)

Prior to the year 1850, average parts per million of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere over the past 800,000 years: 231

Prior to 1850, maximum parts per million of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere since the appearance on Earth of modern humans: 287

Parts per million of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere in 1850: 287

Parts per million of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere in 2016: 400.7

Global average increase in Earth’s surface temperature, in degrees Celsius, between 1850 and 2016: 1.2

In NASA’s temperature record since 1880, number of the warmest years on record that have occurred in the 19 years between 1998 and 2016: 17

Percentage reduction in September Arctic sea ice observed from 1979 to 2016, according to NASA: 34.4

According to NASA, current combined loss rate of land ice from Greenland and Antarctica, in metric tons per year, contributing directly to sea-level rise: 412,000,000,000

Global sea-level rise, in inches, between 1880 and 2014: 9

Temperature increase of Earth’s oceans since 1969, in degrees Celsius, according to NASA: 0.17

Percentage increase in acidity of the oceans since the Industrial Revolution, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: 30

Fraction of the Great Barrier Reef that suffered extreme damage from bleaching in 2016-2017, according to aerial surveys: 2/3

#TheNumbersDontLie

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