1. It's Warming.
Right now, the Earth’s surface temperature is about 1.3° Celsius hotter than industrialization in the late 1800s.
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Climate Science Basics:
Floods, wildfires, tropical storms, drought.
Food crisis, water shortage, displacement, conflict. The impacts of the climate crisis are already everywhere and affect people deeply – hitting harder those in most vulnerable areas or social conditions, who have often contributed the least to worsening this emergency.
The science is clear:
the planet is heating and we are causing it. And it is also up to us to solve this crisis, ensuring a liveable and equitable future for everyone.
Earth has always experienced natural warming and cooling cycles. What we are seeing now is different and concerning. Climate scientists say “every decade since 1850 has been warmer than the last four decades”. The ten hottest years have all happened since 2000, because of human activity.
Rising temperatures don’t just mean hotter weather. Earth’s climate is complex. Even small rises in global temperature can lead to big changes. These changes can have dangerous effects on entire ecosystems and mean life and death for millions of people.
The global 2015 Paris Agreement set 1.5ºC as the critical heating limit we can’t afford to cross. According to scientific research (and our People’s Dossier on 1.5˚C), surpassing this will trigger climate “tipping points”. Meaning, we will start seeing “sudden, permanent, and dangerous changes” with serious effects on humanity if we don’t stop global heating right away.
And the reality is dire: a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows that at our current pace, the world could very well get 1.5˚C hotter as soon as 2040. That’s less than 20 years away and within most of our lifetimes. In fact, 2024 became the first year that was more than 1.5 °C hotter than pre-industrial levels. Now, even if all countries deliver on their promises to cut emissions by 2030, we’re still on track for a 2.7˚C rise by 2100.
Scientists warn that if we reach a 2.7˚C rise, many parts of the world will face “unbearable heat” and even more unpredictable weather. Wildlife will vanish, food shortages will occur, cities, and other human systems will be damaged.
GRAPH: NASA TIME SERIES: 1884 TO 2021
Caption: Interactive time series showing average planetary temperature, from 1884 to 2021. Source: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio (NASA Time Series)
2. It’s Us.
Humans are causing climate change by burning fossil fuels, the science is clear.
Before the 1700s, our atmosphere had around 280 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide (CO2). This was the level of carbon that life on Earth, including humans, had adapted to. But things started to change when parts of Europe and North America began burning coal, oil, and gas to power transport and factories – what is known as the “Industrial Revolution”.
Since then, the use of fossil fuels spread very quickly worldwide, making carbon in the atmosphere shoot up. In 2002, we had 365 parts per million of CO2, and nearly 25 years later we’re now over 420 ppm. Many climate scientists consider 350 ppm the safe upper limit for atmospheric CO2 to maintain a stable climate. And we’ve already exceeded the threshold for climate safety by a significant margin. Learn more about why this matters at 350.
As the use of fossil fuels spreads through the world, the amount of carbon in the atmosphere is skyrocketing. In 2002 we were at 365 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere, and just two decades later we’re crossing 420 ppm.
Another factor in the rapid rise in other dangerous greenhouse gasses like methane is that wealthier countries’ demand for meat and dairy has driven more livestock farming. Agriculture now causes about 15% of all emissions.
Burning fossil fuels remains the major issue because carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere much longer than methane and other greenhouse gasses. In 2021, it accounted for 89% of the energy sector’s greenhouse gas emissions and in 2024, global fossil CO2 emissions were the highest ever recorded. Keeping fossil fuels in the ground is the most important step we can take to stop climate change.
Source: NOAA
3. We’re Sure.
There is no real debate about the basic science of climate change: 99% of scientists agree that humans are causing it.
We’ve known since the 1890s that more CO2 in the atmosphere heats the planet. Groups that stand to lose money often attack climate science. Fossil fuel companies, in particular, spend millions to create doubt about climate change.
Oil and gas giants, Exxon and TotalEnergies have known about climate change since the 1970s. They understood that taking action could hurt their profits. So they have been covering up the truth, funding lies and deception, and misleading shareholders and the public for decades.
Between the 2015 Paris Agreement and 2019, the top five oil companies spent a combined US$1 billion on misleading climate-related branding and lobbying. Even today, they are actively fighting to maintain fossil fuels for decades to come. Their greed, combined with government inaction, has created our current crisis. We now live in a world where billionaires hoard extreme wealth, while the rest of us face rising costs, worsening inequality, and a climate crisis. Just 1% of people own more wealth than 95% of us combined, all while destroying our planet.
Believing these profit-driven companies and denying the climate crisis means ignoring established scientific facts and generations of Indigenous, local, and traditional knowledge. Local communities and Indigenous Peoples manage 50% or more of the world’s land, including 54% of the world’s remaining intact forests. Their customary practices ensure that lands often see lower rates of deforestation and degradation than lands managed by public or private entities. As Brazilian Indigenous leader Ailton Krenak explains, “People think climate change is something for the future, but we live inside our forests for a long time. […] We live on the Earth through the constant interaction between people and nature.”
The ‘debate’ is OVER. Scientist march for action on climate change. Photo credit: Road to Paris
4. It’s Bad.
We’re already living with the damage of 1.3°C of global warming, with some of us being hit much harder than others..
According to the IPCC report, 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in areas highly exposed to climate risks. If emissions continue, by 2100, up to 75% of the global population could face life-threatening conditions from extreme heat and rainfall.
Food and water systems are under serious stress. Grain yields are falling, and seasonal changes are making farming harder. Even if we limit warming to 1.5°C, 8% of current farmland could become unusable. In tropical Africa, fish production, crucial for one-third of the population’s protein consumption, could drop by 3% to 41%, worsening hunger.
Climate change is deepening social inequality. Vulnerable groups like women, youth, the elderly, Indigenous Peoples, refugees, and minorities face greater risks of poverty, food and water shortages, violence, and displacement.
Rising seas alone could force 10 million more people to migrate if warming reaches 2°C. And since 2008, extreme weather has already displaced over 20 million people every year.
While we need to quickly adapt to climate change, the way we do it remains deeply unequal. Most efforts are small, scattered, and leave out lower-income communities. Scientists warn that without faster, fairer action, the world will remain dangerously underprepared, especially beyond 1.5°C.
Caption: Interactive map showing how climate change affects extreme weather around the world. Source: CarbonBrief
Extreme Heat
Climate science shows that global warming makes heatwaves worse, droughts longer, and wildfires more frequent.
Caption: In 2022, Europe has gone through extreme temperatures, with London (UK)
reaching record
breaking 40˚C during summer, wildfires catching up on parts of Spain and Portugal and tens of
thousands people displaced. Photo credit: NOAA
Our planet’s atmosphere and oceans are heating about ten times faster than any time in the last 65 million years, especially in the past 20 years.
Caption: Map highlighting in brown the regions where droughts are expected to become worse as a result of climate change. Source: IPCC.
Warming makes drought worse. A warmer atmosphere pulls more water from the soil, making drought more likely and stresses plants. The UN warned that "over 50 million people in Eastern Africa faced severe food shortages" in 2022. Four years of poor rainfall caused this. It was the worst drought in 40 years for many countries in the region. If we don't cut emissions fast, a third of global land areas are projected to suffer from at least moderate drought by 2100. Here’s more on the role of fossil fuels in droughts.
Increasing wildfires also show our rapidly warming atmosphere.The latest IPCC report states that "a quarter of the world’s natural land now sees longer fire seasons as a result of increases in temperature, aridity and drought". In 2024, Turkey faced the warmest year in the last 54 years. Longer and more intense wildfires have been hitting California, in the US, with two of the largest, most destructive fires hitting in early 2025. The likelihood of such events has increased by 8-31% since 1950, with climate change also intensifying winds and reducing water availability for firefighting.
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme hot weather is not limited to these regions. Other parts of the world, like Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa are also being severely affected, particularly by heatwaves. Read more here.
Ocean Warming
Caption: Heat content in the global ocean has been consistently above-average (red bars) since the mid-1990s. More than 90 percent of the excess heat trapped in the Earth system due to human-caused global warming has been absorbed by the oceans. Source: NOAA Climate.gov
Greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere, and over 90 percent of that heat has been absorbed into the oceans. This causes ocean warming, leading to melting of glaciers and ice sheets, sea level rise, and coral bleaching, disrupting life and vital ecosystems on land and water.
Melting Ice
Warmer air and oceans are melting glaciers and ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctica. This drives sea level rise, lowers Earth’s ability to reflect heat, and threatens unique ecosystems.
Since satellite tracking began four decades ago, the Arctic sea ice has shrunk by about 13% each decade. This loss endangers key habitats for many animals, and impacts the lives of many people, especially Indigenous communities. It also contributes to severe winters with strong blizzards, deadly summer heat waves and intense flooding.
Because of climate change, glaciers are also permanently shrinking all over the world.The melting of glaciers in the Himalayas, Andes, Arctic, New Zealand,and Southern Alps poses serious risks, as they supply essential water year-round to many cities and ecosystems around the world.
Sea level rise
As water heats up, it expands. Melting polar ice and glaciers add water to the oceans, causing sea levels to rise. It only takes a small amount of sea level rise to cause dramatic damage, as high tides and storm surges reach further inland. Read more about tropical cyclones , which are fuelled by warm waters.
Caption: In 2022, leaders of 15 low-lying Pacific island nations declared climate change their “single greatest existential threat”. In 2014, Fiji became the first nation to relocate a community because of rising sea levels when salt water invaded Vunidogoloa. Photo credit: Forest Woodward, Matagi Mālohi movie
The rate of sea level rise has doubled in the last three decades, and is currently around 4.5 mm/year – but it is speeding up.
If we keep fossil fuels in the ground and limit heating to less than 2°C, we have a chance of limiting sea level rise to about 50 cm by 2100. With 37% of the world’s population, or 2.8 billion people, living near the coast, the stakes are high.
Antarctica holds the most freshwater on Earth. While its ice sheet is melting more slowly than the Arctic, it could still raise sea level significantly. Even a ‘small’ rise of a few meters would displace roughly 230 million people. If fully melted, it will raise sea levels by nearly 60 meters, submerging entire coastal cities. Keeping warming below 1.5ºC, can limit this sea level rise, but above 2ºC could add at least 2 meters. Acting now to keep fossil fuels in the ground can help preserve the Antarctic ice sheet.
Coral bleaching
Caption: Corals bleach when environmental stressors such as heat cause them to expel the colourful, energy-producing algae that lives inside them, leaving them white. Source: Oceanographic Magazine
When water gets too warm, corals get stressed and push out the algae living inside them, turning white (bleaching) and risking death. Before the 1980s, there were no signs of any global coral bleaching events for over ten thousand years, likely even longer. Coral reefs, like those in the Great Barrier Reef and the Andaman Islands of the Indian Ocean, used to be vibrant and full of life.
Since 1998, we have seen mass coral bleaching events for the first time in history. The most intense global coral bleaching event on record is still happening. Between January 2023 and March 2025, 84% of the world’s coral reefs experienced heat stress, causing bleaching, with some reefs losing up to 80% of their corals due to prolonged bleaching.
Reefs support about 25% of all marine species. A huge coral die-off risks the lives and jobs of one billion people worldwide. If we don’t control greenhouse gas emissions, we will lose most of the world's coral reefs in just a few decades.
Extreme Storms
Storms, hurricanes, and typhoons have always existed, but climate change is making them stronger. Today, they bring heavier rain, more flooding, bigger storm surges, and fiercer winds.
Warmer air holds more moisture, about 7% more for every degree of warming. That means more energy for storms and more extreme rainfall. According to the latest IPCC report, the increase in record-breaking rainstorms can only be explained by human-caused emissions. The most immediate impact of heavy rainfall is flooding which we see happening worldwide with devastating consequences.
In late 2024, catastrophic floods in Spain's Valencia region resulted in over 200 fatalities after some areas received a year's worth of rain in just eight hours. Earlier in the year, severe flooding also hit Central Europe in September and southern Germany in May. In Brazil, the state of Rio Grande do Sul experienced major flooding in June 2025, displacing thousands of people. This followed an even more severe event in late April and May 2024, which was considered the worst in over 80 years, causing 181 deaths and displacing over 580,000 people.
Burning more fossil fuels has real costs. It will make storms, hurricanes, typhoons, and cyclones deadly and more expensive. Read more about the role of fossil fuels on causing floods .
Human health
Climate change affects nearly every part of our lives, and it's one of the biggest threats to human health today. The World Health Organization warns that it may lead to about 250,000 deaths each year from 2030 to 2050, mainly from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress.
Caption: Climate change impacts health both directly and indirectly. Source: WHO
Food and Water Shortages
It’s harder to grow, transport, and store food as extreme heat, droughts, and floods become more common. The latest IPCC report predicts that by 2050, between 8 million and 80 million people may face hunger, with Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Central America being hit the hardest.
Water quality and availability are affected because climate change impacts the water cycle. Droughts lower water levels in rivers, lakes, and underground. Floods can pollute water with dirt and chemicals. Higher temperatures also cause more evaporation, leaving less fresh water for people, farms, and nature. This makes clean water harder to find, especially for poor and dry areas.
Heat Stress
Nearly 500,000 heat-related deaths occur every year. By 2100, up to 76% of people globally could face deadly heat if we don’t reduce emissions. Heat stress can cause dehydration, organ failure, heart disease, and even death. It impacts the most vulnerable groups the hardest, including women, the elderly, LGBTQIA+ and poorer communities.
Caption: Female Aedes albopictus mosquito capable of spreading Zika virus. (Photo: James Gathany/CDC) Source: PHIL
Spread of Diseases
Rising temperatures expand the areas and seasons of mosquito-borne diseases like
Zika, malaria and dengue fever. Since the 1950s, malaria transmission seasons have lengthened by up to
32% in parts of the Americas and 15% in Africa. Dengue infection risk has also risen by 12%. By 2080,
Violence and Mental Health
Climate change-induced disasters like floods, hurricanes, heat waves, and wildfires can worsen social tensions and increase violence, especially where resources like food, water, and shelter become scarce, and uncertainty about the future grows. Evidence shows that warmer temperatures correlate with a 4% increase in interpersonal violence and a 14% rise in intergroup conflicts globally.
At the same time, extreme weather events cause significant psychological harm. Survivors often experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. With more and more people facing loss of homes, businesses and lives due to the increasingly extreme weather, profound, long-term effects on mental health will become more widespread.
Habitat & Seasons
Heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, and floods are becoming more frequent and intense.These stress plants and animals beyond their ability to adapt, causing extinctions, migrations, and ecosystem disruptions.
A global study of 976 species found that 47% had already experienced local extinction due to climate change. New research shows that climate change could drive the extinction of 14–32% of animal and plant species within the next 50 years, potentially affecting 3 million to 6 million species. At 4.5°C, up to half of all recorded species could be lost.
With ongoing climate change, warmer climate zones are shifting toward the poles, forcing many plants and animals to move to higher altitudes, deeper waters, or cooler areas. Nature and ecosystems are deeply interconnected. When one species disappears or moves, it can trigger cascading effects across ecosystems. These changes threaten nature’s ability to provide essential services like food, clean water, coastal protection, and carbon storage.
Protecting and restoring ecosystems helps store carbon and makes communities more resilient. Scientists say that conserving 30–50% of Earth’s land, ocean, and freshwater areas could significantly slow both climate change and biodiversity loss.
5. We Can Fix It.
The facts about the climate crisis are tough: we must keep fossil fuels in the ground to limit warming. But, fossil fuel companies are not worried about us, the people – they are fighting climate policies and funding to protect their profits.
Here’s the good news:
The real solutions to the crisis put the majority of people and communities first, and not just a wealthy few. A world beyond fossil fuels is one where everyone can thrive.
At 350.org, we believe and fight for a safer climate and a better future for all – and we need you with us!