en.wikipedia.org
Climate change
Human-caused changes to climate on Earth
- Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system.
- In a broader sense, climate change also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate.
- The modern-day rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution.
- Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases.
- These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere.
- Earth's atmosphere now has roughly 50% more carbon dioxide, the main gas driving global warming, than it did at the end of the pre-industrial era, reaching levels not seen for millions of years.