Depending on whom you ask, a consensus is developing, or has developed, that climate change is in fact occurring.

• [O]ne of the clearest signals that human actions have pushed recent warming beyond natural cycles is a measured buildup of heat in the worlds oceans, and oceanic heat is the fuel that powers hurricanes.
• What is clear is that an array of leading experts on oceans and climate agree that the tropical oceans have warmed in a way that is hard to attribute to anything other than overall warming of the climate from the buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions. (11).

On February 2, 2007 the International Panel on Climate Change released its finding with over 90% certainty that global warming is being caused in large part by human activities. One of the leading indicators to which scientists point as demonstrating the planet's warming are changes in the Arctic.

• For the second year in a row, the cloak of sea ice on the Arctic Ocean failed to grow to its normal winter exposure.[...] Scientists studying the region are divided over how much of the Arctic shift is from the regions large natural variations and how much is being driven by the global buildup of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases emitted mainly by smokestacks and tailpipes. (12).

• The Arctic has long been viewed as the canary in the coal mine for global warming. Now, say many researchers, the canary not only is teetering on its perch; it may have reached the tumbling point. [...] The signs are seen in the shrinking summer ice, the northward march of tree and shrubs, and longer periods from spring to fall when the ground is snow free. But perhaps more telling, scientists say they see evidence that the changes are beginning to feed on themselves, building momentum for which researchers say they currently see no effective breaks. (13).

• NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies has concluded 2005 was the warmest year in recorded history []. Researchers recently found by drilling ice cores that there is a higher concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than at any time in the last 650,000 years, which reflects that humans are burning an increased amount of fossil fuels to power automobiles and utilities. (14).

What has become known as the "hockey stick," is a graph of global temperatures "showing that temperatures during the late 20th century were likely higher than at any time in the past 1,000 years." (15). While there has been some dispute over the accuracy of the graph, President Bush, at the 2005 G-8 summit, did acknowledge that global warming was occurring:

• I recognize that the surface of the earth is warmer and that an increase in greenhouse gases caused by humans is contributing to the problem. (16).

Even ExxonMobil's chairman, while noting that he thought there is "still significant uncertainty around all of the factors that affect climate change," has stated that ExxonMobil "recognize[s] that greenhouse gas emissions are one of the factors affecting climate change." (48).

The Environmental Protection Agency states that "Scientists know for certain that human activities are changing the composition of Earth's atmosphere. Increasing levels of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide (CO 2), in the atmosphere since pre-industrial times have been well documented. There is no doubt this atmospheric buildup of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is largely the result of human activities."

With this universal acknowledgement of the Earth's warming and climate change, the important inquiry becomes, what is the impact of this?

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Impact of Climate Change