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Global Warming

• Kyoto Protocol -- The goal is to reduce emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
• Annual world carbon emissions from fossil fuel burning: 1992 - 5,992 million tons; 2002 - 6,553 million tons. (Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2002)

Carbon Emissions

• The No. 1 contributor of carbon emissions worldwide is the US, responsible for 22 percent of the world's annual emissions. In second place, China produces 17 percent, while Russia at No. 3, contributes 6 percent. (US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration)
• Of the top five producers (responsible for more than half of global emissions), the US is by far the highest per capita contributor - 20 metric tons per person per year compared with China's 3.6 metric tons. (US Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration)

Fisheries

• 25 per cent of commercial species are over-exploited and depleted, compared with 10 per cent in the mid-1970s. (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation)
• The global fishing industry catch has risen from 18 million tons to 95 million tons over the past half-century. (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation)

Coral Reefs

•  Share of the world's coral reefs damaged by human pressures and global warming in 1992: 10 percent. In 2002: 27 percent.  (Worldwatch Institute, Vital Signs 2001)

Forests

•  Forest cover worldwide in 1992 was 3.963 billion hectares. In 2002, 3.869 hectares. (UN Food and Agriculture Organization, State of the World's Forests, 2001)

Species Extinction

• Two thirds of the services provided by nature to humankind are already in decline, with 12 percent of bird species, 23 percent of mammals, 25 percent of conifers, 32 percent of amphibians, and 52 percent of cycads (a type of evergreen plant similar to palms and ferns) continuing to face serious threats of extinction.
  
• According to scientific calculations, within the next 50 years, it is quite likely that up to another 37 percent of currently existing species might be gone due to climate change.

Water Usage

• 70% of all water use is agricultural irrigation worldwide, according to the UN World Water Development Report. In the US, irrigation uses 80%, and in the dry western states 90%, according to the USDA. 22-23% is used for industry. 7-8% is for domestic use. (Statistics from the International Water Management Institute and Earth Policy Institute)
• Almost 60% of irrigation water is wasted says the UN's World Water Assessment Program. (International Water Management Institute)
• Inefficient irrigation wastes more water than all the people of the world use (efficiently or inefficiently) for all their drinking, bathing, manufacturing, and industry.
• Demand for water will increase between 30 and 85 per cent by 2050, especially in Africa and Asia (UN Millennium Ecosystem Assessment).
  

Electricity Generation (USA Statistics)

• 50 percent from burning coal
• 20 percent from nuclear power
• 18 percent from burning natural gas
• 6.5 percent by harnessing the energy of water moving through dams
• Less than 3 percent from oil
• Wind and solar power make up less than one-half of 1 percent of what we use on a typical day.