TAMPA, Fla. — It's getting warmer: The Tampa Bay area's average temperature has increased by 3.4 degrees since the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.
Data examined by researchers at Climate Central shows there has been widespread warming across the U.S. in the past 52 years. The nonprofit found the U.S. is 2.6 degrees warmer today than it was in 1970.
And in Florida, the state's average temperature has climbed 2.5 degrees.
Earth Day emerged amid growing concerns about America's air and water quality. Back then, according to the Earth Day Network, protests helped lead to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and a slate of environmental laws in the years thereafter.
Today, Earth Day provides an opportunity to acknowledge the effects of climate change on the planet and what solutions are necessary. Life will change — and already has in some aspects — given rising sea levels, stronger and more frequent severe weather, and even bigger wildfires.
RELATED: From microplastics in your blood to sea level rise, a few things to know about our changing climate
Since the first Earth Day, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by about 30 percent, according to Climate Central. Any increase in CO2 — a heat-trapping chemical compound — leads to a rise in temperature.
Many of Florida's warmest years have occurred in the past decade.
"Warming isn't exclusive to Tampa, but almost everywhere in the Tampa Bay region has seen at least a little bit of warming over the last 50 years," 10 Tampa Bay meteorologist Grant Gilmore said. "This year is no different. So far, most locations across the Florida Peninsula are experiencing their Top 10 warmest years on record.
"Tampa itself is having its second warmest year on record so far."
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change earlier this year called climate change a "threat to human well-being and planetary health." Any delay to cut carbon dioxide emissions "will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all."
As mentioned, the U.S. is 2.6 degrees warmer now than on the first Earth Day. That's 0.1 degrees less than the global warming limit 196 countries, including the U.S., agreed to in the 2016 Paris Agreement, Climate Central reports.