![]() ![]() This means measuring things that change when it gets colder or warmer. Climatologists measure other things to try to figure out past temperatures before there were thermometers. īefore 1850, there were not enough temperature measurements for us to know how warm or cold it was. In 1979, satellites started measuring the temperature of the Earth. Compared with before people started burning a lot of coal for industry, the temperature has risen by about 1 ☌ (1.8 ☏). By about 1850, there were enough places measuring temperature so that scientists could know the global average temperature. Since the 1800s, people have recorded the daily temperature. But modern climate change is different because people are putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere more quickly than before. The so-called Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age were regional phenomena, and were not experienced worldwide.Ĭlimate change has happened constantly over the history of the Earth, including the coming and going of ice ages. See also: Temperature record of the past 1000 years A graph of temperatures over the past two thousand years. A few people think nothing should change. People could adapt to some temperature change. Some things that could reduce warming are to burn less fossil fuels, grow more trees, eat less meat, and put some carbon dioxide back in the ground. But governments, companies, and other people do not agree on what to do about it. People in government and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are talking about global warming. In the Paris Agreement almost all governments agreed to keep temperature rise below 2 ☌ (3.6 ☏), but current plans are not enough to limit global warming that much. These changes will not be the same everywhere. Strong storms may become more likely and farming may not make as much food. ![]() Colder areas will warm up faster than warm areas. Weather patterns, including where and how much rain or snow there is, are changing. The sea level rise causes coastal areas to flood. It is also partly because warm temperatures make glaciers and ice caps melt. This is partly because water over 4 ☌ (39 ☏) expands when it gets warmer. Īs the Earth's surface temperature becomes hotter the sea level rises. Animals which have four places in their stomachs, like cows and sheep, also cause global warming, because their burps contain a greenhouse gas called methane. When people cut down many trees ( deforestation), this means less carbon dioxide is taken out of the atmosphere by those plants. This is because fossil fuels contain lots of carbon and burning means joining most of the atoms in the fuel with oxygen. When people burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas this adds carbon dioxide into the air. Arrhenius confirmed the work of Joseph Fourier 200 years ago. Svante Arrhenius predicted this more than a hundred years ago. Among greenhouse gases, the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the main cause of global warming. But the heat from the burning itself only makes the world a tiny bit warmer: it is the carbon dioxide from the burning which is the biggest part of the problem. The present global warming is mostly because of people burning things, like gasoline for cars and natural gas to keep houses warm. It is having a profound impact on the environment and our planet. Global warming is a significant and rapidly accelerating issue caused by human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation, and the burning of fossil fuels. Most climate scientists say that by the year 2100, temperatures will be 2 ☌ (3.6 ☏) to 4 ☌ (7.2 ☏) higher than they were before 1750. In some parts of the world it is less, and in some, more. Average temperatures today are about 1 ☌ (1.8 ☏) higher than before people started burning a lot of coal around 1750. It is happening mainly because humans burn coal, oil, and natural gas and cut down forests. Global warming is the rise in temperature of the air and oceans globally. Places that have become warmer (red) and cooler (blue) over the past 50 years Earth's average temperature, shown by measurements from various scientific organizations, has increased since the Industrial Revolution. Some things global warming makes worse (clockwise from top left): Wildfires, droughts, and dead coral killed by the ocean getting more hot and acidic. ![]()
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