Global Climate Change and the Electric Power Industry

The world is getting warmer, both in the atmosphere and in the oceans. The year 2005 was the warmest year in over a century, according to a recent NASA report (2006A). Data gathered from 1995 to 2006 have revealed that 11 of the past 12 years have ranked among the 12 warmest years in the instrumental record. Observations since 1961 have shown that the average ocean temperature has increased to depths of at least 3 thousand meters. This warming causes the seawater to expand, thus contributing to rising sea levels (IPCC 2007, p. 4). This section reviews the evidence of global warming, drawing heavily on the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC was formed in 1988 and is described in box #1. The clearest and most emphatic statement on global warming appeared in the IPCC’s most recent summary for policymakers released in February, 2007: