The earth has warmed. 

And we did it.  

In the last ad in this series we showed how we’ve known for more than a century that adding more heat-trapping carbon dioxide to the atmosphere from fossil fuels would warm the planet.[1]

So it’s not surprising that the planet keeps getting warmer (although you may not have seen this fact on this page).

Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve warmed the planet more than 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.[2] Remember, this is an average – some regions like the poles have warmed significantly more.

And we continue to warm the planet more each year. Sixteen of the last eighteen years were the hottest on record,[3] and 2015 was confirmed as the hottest ever by far.[4] Despite what you may have heard, there has been no “pause.”

Of course, we need to take into account natural climate cycles caused by small orbital changes, sun cycles and other factors. But those factors indicate we should be in a cooling phase right now, instead of the continued temperature increases we’re experiencing.[5] Humans are literally overwhelming our atmospheric system with excess CO2 emissions.

And not surprisingly, CO2 levels and temperatures track together in the geologic record.[6]

Continuing to rely on fossil fuels for much longer creates great peril to our freedom, prosperity and national security. There is a market-based, pro-growth solution to help turn this situation around. More on that later in the series.