The sun is earth’s only external energy source, with an average power of 341.5 W/m2, spanning between zero at night and over the poles, and 1366 at the equatorial maximum.

For a field or a forest producing 30 metric tons of biomass per hectare and year with a heating value of 18'000 KJ/Kg (= 5 KWh/Kg):
Energy production: 540'000'000'000  J a^-1 Ha^-1, or 150 MWh a^-1 Ha^-1    
Corresponding to a mean energy flux of 1.71 W m^-2 or 0.50% of the total solar input.

Biomass growth is not constrained by the solar energy input but by the plant genetics, competition for space (in the soil and above ground), the rate of absorption and the quantity of available nutrients (with the Liebig limiting factor of the least abundant of N, P or K), irrigation, and, last but not least, the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ to engage photosynthesis.

Since the beginning of the industrial era (BIE), 385 Pg (petagram, or gigaton) of carbon have been emitted into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO₂).
If all of it would have been crude oil, this would represent a volume equivalent to 6 times the content of the Lake Geneva, or 1.5 time the volume of Mount Etna.

The current emissions are 10 Pg carbon per year. They grow at a yearly rate of 3.3 %. If all of it would be oil it would be a flow equivalent to the one of the Rhône River exiting the Lake Geneva in summer months, or it would cover all oceans by a 0.03 mm thick layer.

The atmospheric CO₂ concentration was approx. 280 ppm before the beginning of industrial era (BIE).
In 2014 it reaches 400 ppm and increases at the rate of 0.67% per year, or 2.7 ppm/a.

From all emitted carbon since BIE, approx. 66 % remained in the atmosphere, the other 34 % were absorbed to form additional biomass on land or in the seas, to be absorbed by the oceans, and to be mineralized.
At today’s emissions rate of 10 Pg carbon per year, the balance is 56% staying in atmosphere, and 44% captured back.

Most, but not all, glaciers are melting. Greenland and the Antarctic lose ice mass at such a rate that the ice over Greenland may have totally disappeared in 10’000 years and over the Antarctic in 380’000 years. The current melting rate contributes raising the sea level by approximately 0.9 mm/a.

Since the end of the 19th century the global surface temperature of the earth has risen by approx. 0.8 °C. This took place in two distinct 30 years periods, 1910 - 1940 and 1970 – 2000, with slightly negative periods in between and since the beginning of the 21^st century.

In nature these temperature changes make themselves noticeable by earlier crop maturity and by the migration of some insect and plant species from South to North (in the Northern Hemisphere).

No statistically significant changes have been recorded in the frequency and the released energy of hurricanes and tornadoes.

While human beings are exposed to meteorological events such as drought or floods, no actual “climate victim” could be identified.