COP21 — 10 photos of a changing world — United Nations Conference on Climate Change

Source: COP21 — 10 photos of a changing world — United Nations Conference on Climate Change

01 / Satellite images from the Arctic ice pack in September 2005 and again in September 2007

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The Arctic ice pack is most extensive in the month of September. Yet NASA, which has been mapping it annually since 1979, has measured a 13% drop in its surface area per year.

02 / The Maldives under threat from rising water levels

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The rising water levels are threatening more and more islands and coastal cities.

Scientists have calculated that sea levels rose by 18cm between 1870 and 2000, and at a faster rate in recent years (+6cm in 20 years).

03 / Iceberg drifting off the village of Kulusuk in Greenland

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Global warming has hit Greenland hard, with the ice melting increasingly quickly.

In barely ten years, temperature variations of several dozen degrees in the same period have been recorded.

04 / Pollution from factories contributes to global warming

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In 2012, the primary production of renewable energies rose to 22.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe).

The main sectors are wood fuel (44.8%), hydropower (22.4%), biofuels (10.7%) and heat pumps (6.2%).

05 / Drought, one of the consequences of climate change

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Climate change increases the risk of more violent and more frequent extreme climate events such as droughts, torrential rain and storms.

06 / I don’t believe in global warming

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A meta-study published in 2013 in “Environmental Research Letters” compiled almost 12,000 research abstracts published by over 29,000 researchers between 1991 and 2011.

Among them, 3,896 articles stated a position on the causes of global warming over the past 50 years: 97.1% of them endorsed the consensus that it is human-caused.

07 / The Robeson Islands in the San Blas archipelago (Panama) are under threat from rising water levels

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Experts from the IPCC have predicted that average sea and ocean levels could rise from 26cm to 82cm by 2100. This would pose a threat to all islands, deltas and coastal areas.

08 / Melting ice is destroying many species’ habitats

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Destroying habitats and ecosystems leads to many species becoming extinct. Currently, 20-30% of animal and plant species are under threat of extinction.

09 / Flooding in Pakistan

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The recent deadly floods which hit Pakistan are largely due to the melting Himalayan glaciers, which in turn is caused by global warming.

10 / Large-scale deforestation

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Four centuries ago, 66% of the earth was covered in forests – today, this figure has been halved.

And this deforestation is intensifying, with 23 million hectares of forest destroyed between 2000 and 2012.