Climate change

What is climate change?

• Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the mid 20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases the
heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising earth’s average surface temperature. Natural processes, which have been
overwhelmed by human activities, can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like Niño, La niña
and the pacific decadal oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity,changes in the sun’s energy output variation in earth’s orbit)

• Scientists use observations from the ground, air, and space, along with computer models, to monitor and study past, present, and future climate
change. Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels;
ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires,
droughts, floods, and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes.

• Climate change” and “global warming” are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings. Similarly, the terms "weather" and "climate" are
sometimes confused, though they refer to events with broadly different spatial- and timescales.

• Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" — warming that
results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.

• Over the last century, burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2). This increase
happens because the coal or oil burning process combines carbon with oxygen in the air to make CO2.
 Evidence
• Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture,
collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the
world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing
climate.

• While Earth’s climate has changed throughout its history, the current warming is happening at
a rate not seen in the past 10,000 years.

• According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "Since systematic

• Scientific information taken from natural sources (such as ice cores, rocks, and tree rings) and
from modern equipment (like satellites and instruments) all show the signs of a changing
climate.

• From global temperature rise to melting ice sheets, the evidence of a warming planet
abounds.

• Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have
been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about
11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human
civilization. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s
orbitthat change the amount of solar energy our planet receives.

• The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since
the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia.1 It is
undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped
more of the Sun’s energy in the Earth system. This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere,
ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere,
and biosphere have occurred.

• Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture,
collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the
world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing
climate.

• Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the
mid-19th century.2 Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on
how these gases affect the movement of infrared radiation through the atmosphere. From the
measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse
gas levels warm Earth in response.
 Effects
• Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth’s climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up
earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.

• Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea
level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.

• Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according
to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate
change — modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible
over the next hundreds to thousands of years.

• Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by
human activities.

• The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate
by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900.1 The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5
degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.

• The severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead
to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of
carbon dioxide we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.

• Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas
levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or
paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age.
Carbon dioxide from human activities is increasing about 250 times faster than it did from natural sources after the last Ice Age.3
 Causes of climate change

• Gases that cause climate change

• [Link] dioxide

• 2. Methane

• [Link] oxide

• [Link] (CFCs)
• Global Temperature Is Rising

• The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased
carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities.4 Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being

Other stuff
the warmest. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on record.

• The Ocean Is Getting Warmer

• The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees
Celsius) since 1969.6 Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.

• The Ice Sheets Are Shrinking

• The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279
billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.

• Glaciers Are Retreating

• Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.

• Snow Cover Is Decreasing

• Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting
earlier.

• Sea Level Is Rising

• Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and
accelerating slightly every year.

• Arctic Sea Ice Is Declining

• Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

• Extreme Events Are Increasing in Frequency

• The number of record high temperature events in the United States has been increasing, while the number of record low temperature events has been decreasing,
since 1950. The U.S. has also witnessed increasing numbers of intense rainfall events.

• Ocean Acidification Is Increasing