A Growing Consensus for Action
A Timeline of the Last 18 Months
Over the last decade, scientists from around the world have agreed that the Earth’s temperature is rising and that this is largely due to human-generated carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gas pollution.
The need to act to reduce carbon dioxide pollution has earned widespread support. Recent champions of this previously “green” cause include evangelical Christians, Ford Motor Co., governors such as Schwarzenegger of California and Pataki of New York, Duke Energy, GE, and past and present top level government officials.
February 2006: The governors of New Mexico and Arizona launch the Southwest Climate Change Initiative, committing to collaborate on global warming pollution reductions in the Southwest.
February 14, 2006: U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska says, “I believe there is now almost universal acceptance that our planet is warming. I believe it is a reality that man is contributing to the current warming trend.”
February 2006: The Washington Post reports a pine bark beetle infestation attributed to global warming and described as akin to a “silent forest fire”, destroying millions of acres of logging forests in Western Canada and threatening to spread to the Rocky Mountains.
February 2006: Peer-reviewed paper is published in Science reporting that the Greenland ice sheet has doubled its rate of melting and draining, suggesting that the tipping point leading to the complete loss of the ice sheet and 20 foot sea level rise may be closer than previously predicted. vFebruary 2006: Over 80 prominent Christian Evangelicals issue Climate Change: A Call to Action, calling attention to the dangers of climate change.
February 2006: Peer-reviewed paper is published in Science showing that the magnitude and spatial extent of the present global warming is an exceptional phenomenon that has not occurred on Earth for at least the past 1200 years, and that the so-called “Medieval Warm Period” was not a global event.
January 19, 2006: Six former EPA administrators (five from Republicans administrations, one from a Democratic administration) call for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
November 2005: Peer-reviewed paper is published in Science showing that current CO2 concentrations are the largest in 650,000 years.
November 2005: Peer-reviewed paper is published in Science confirming an increase in atmospheric water vapor from the greenhouse gas effect, as predicted by climate models.
October 2005: Harlan Watson, U.S. chief climate negotiator for the State Department, says, ““[President Bush] recognizes this is an important problem and is concerned. We know the average mean temperature [of the Earth] is increasing. We know that there is a human contribution to this. There’s no scientific doubt of that.”
October 2005: Wal-Mart announces series of steps to help fight global warming, including a goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 20 percent in seven years on a per store basis.
September 2005: Senator John Warner of Virginia says, ““The effects of global warming on the environment and the economy are vast and potentially harmful.”
September 2005: National Snow and Ice Data Center report an accelerating loss of Arctic sea ice. Since 1978, sea ice area has decreased by approximately 500,000 square miles – an area roughly equivalent to twice the size of Texas.
August 2005: Two peer-reviewed papers published contradicting skeptics’ claims and showing mid-atmospheric temperatures are increasing and at a rate consistent with the greenhouse effect as predicted by climate models.
July and September 2005: Two peer-reviewed papers are published showing that rising ocean temperatures from global warming have caused a doubling in the intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes over the past few decades – finding a significantly larger impact than predicted.
July 8, 2005: G-8 Summit Declaration on Climate Change signed by the United States. The declaration asserts “we know enough to act now to put ourselves on a path to slow and, as the science justifies, stop and then reverse the growth of greenhouse gases.”
July 3, 2005: California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger publishes an op-ed in the Independent newspaper in London urging action to reduce global warming and pledging that California will take the lead.
June 13, 2005: U.S. Conference of Mayors signs a statement pledging to meet Kyoto-level emissions reductions targets for American cities. The endorsement is unanimous.
June 11, 2005: USA Today runs a front-page story with the headline, “The Debate’s Over: Globe is Warming,” citing the growing momentum among disparate groups to “slow the progression of climate change.”
June 9, 2005: Statement released at the World Economic Forum -- signed by 23 multinational companies including BP, British Airways, Cinergy, Cisco, Ford Motor Co., Rio Tinto, Toyota, Volkswagen and others – promises they “are firmly committed to do our part on climate change.”
June 7, 2005: 11 national academies of science (including that of the U.S.) call for immediate action on global warming, calling the threat “clear and increasing.” “The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. We urge all nations… to take prompt action to reduce the causes of climate change.”
June 1, 2005: California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger introduces an initiative to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050. “Today, California will be a leader in the fight against global warming. I say the debate is over. We know the science, we see the threat and we know the time for action is now.”
June 2005: James Hansen of NASA and other scientists publish paper finding that the ocean is heating due to global warming, calling it “the smoking gun” pointing to human interference in the climate system.”
May 2005: General Electric Corp. announces an initiative to cut global warming pollution and focus on developing clean energy technologies. Xerox pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent from the baseline year 2002 to the end of 2012.
May 7, 2005: John Rowe, CEO of Exelon Corp. (the parent company of Commonwealth Edison), pledges to reduce Exelon’s greenhouse gas emissions by 8 percent and declares, “the science on global warming is overwhelming.”
April 2005: Duke Energy, one of the nation’s largest coal-burning utilities, urges reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
March 3, 2005: Former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker says, in an address at the Houston Forum: When you have energy companies like Shell and British Petroleum…saying there is a problem with excess carbon dioxide emissions, I think we ought to listen.”
March 2005: Dr. John Marburger, White House Science Advisor says in a Princeton University address: “[G]lobal warming exists, and we have to do something about it, and what we have to do about it is reduce carbon dioxide.”
February 2005: UK scientists publish paper warning of “dangerous and irreversible climate disruption,” including melting of Greenland ice sheet and attendant 20-foot rise in sea level.
February 2005: After years of contesting the science behind global warming, Exxon files a report with the Securities and Exchange Commission asserting that the Earth is growing warmer and that fossil-fuel emissions are partially responsible for increasing levels of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere.
December 2004: Paper published in Nature links global warming to the record 2003 European record heat wave that was blamed for 27,000 deaths.
November 2004: Arctic Assessment Report, conducted over four years by eight nations, including the United States, finds that the Arctic polar ice cap is melting at a more rapid rate than previously believed, threatening the Earth with more rapid warming as it loses the ice’s reflective capabilities.