Page 3 - Al-Rashed Newsletter Oct 19

THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS
CLIMATE CHANGE

The Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years
there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of

the last ice age about 7,000 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate
era — and of human civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to
very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our
planet receives.

The evidence for rapid climate change is compelling:
Global Temperature Rise: The planet's average surface temperature has risen
about 1.62 degrees Fahrenheit (0.9 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a
change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made
emissions into the atmosphere.

Warming Oceans: The oceans have absorbed much of this increased heat, with
the top 700 meters (about 2,300 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.4
degrees Fahrenheit since 1969.

Shrinking Ice Sheets: The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in
mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show
Greenland lost an average of 286 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and
2016, while Antarctica lost about 127 billion tons of ice per year during the same
time period. The rate of Antarctica ice mass loss has tripled in the last decade.

Glacial Retreat: Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world —
including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska and Africa.

Decreased Snow Cover: Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring
snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades
and that the snow is melting earlier

Extreme Events: The number of record high temperature events in the United
States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has
been decreasing, since 1950. Instances are similar across the globe.

FACTS
From 1880 to 2012, the average global temperature increased by 0.85°C
If CO2 emissions continue to rise worldwide, the earth will warm up by up to four
degrees Celsius by 2100, according to calculations.
Heat record: June 2019 was the world’s hottest month since temperature records
began in 1880. In Europe, June was more than two degrees above the average.
The realization is: 97 percent of the experts believe that climate change is man-
made.
Danger to coasts and islands: sea levels have risen by almost ten centimeters in
the past twenty years. But things are accelerating all the time: sea levels are
currently rising by 3.3 millimeters a year.
By the year 2100, sea levels could be almost 2.40 meters higher.

Source: climate.nasa.gov, Volkswagen Newsroom