Vital Signs 1995

VITAL SIGNS, WORLDWATCH INSTITUTE
The world is growing warmer, more crowded, and ecologically less stable, according to Vital Signs 1995: The Trends That Are Shaping Our Future, a Worldwatch Institute report. In 1994, global temperature rose from 15.20 degrees Celsius to 15.32 degrees. This rise, equivalent to 0.22 degrees Fahrenheit, made 1994 the fifth warmest year on record.
Vital Signs 1995, which is funded by the Surdna Foundation, the W. Alton Jones Foundation, and the United Nations Population Fund, notes that the warming of the earth is being driven by the emission of greenhouse gases, predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2), but also nitrous oxides, methane, and chlorofluorocarbons. Carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning, running at nearly 6 million tons per year in recent years, plus a modest contribution from deforestation, are steadily raising the atmospheric CO2 levels. Between 1959, when the systematic measuring of atmospheric CO2 began, and 1994, concentrations rose from 316 ppm to 359 ppm, a gain of nearly 14 percent.