Sunday, October 9, 2005: Page updated at 12:00 a.m.

Proving global warming

A world of evidence

NATACHA PISARENKO / AP

The evidence: melting glaciers

Ice falls from the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina, where the melting rate of ice fields has doubled in recent years. Glaciers around the world are retreating, a sign, scientists say, of global warming.

TOM REESE / THE SEATTLE TIMES

NICK UT / AP

The cause: man-made pollution

Carbon-dioxide levels are at their highest in 650,000 years — and probably 2 million years. About a third of the man-made carbon dioxide in the U.S. comes from cars. The rest is from factories, power plants and home and commercial heating.

GARY BRAASCH-KPA / ZUMA KPA

The future: drowning islands

Facing more frequent floods, residents of Tuvalu in the South Pacific threatened to sue the United States over global warming that has raised the worldwide sea level by 8 inches and could swamp the tiny nation by 2050.