Climate Change Now
Scientists have studied global warming for over 100 years.
Climate Change Now
Scientists have studied global warming for over 100 years.
Many thousands of experts have tested hypotheses, gathered evidence, constructed models,
debated results, and reviewed one another’s work.
Thousands of papers are written every year, produced from nearly every leading university,
and research institution on Earth—from Harvard to NASA and the US Department of Defense.
The consensus couldn’t be clearer.
Climate change is happening.
It’s caused primarily by the burning of oil, gas, and coal. If we do nothing,
the world will become significantly less habitable.
We’ve lost precious time, but if we act now—decisively and dramatically—
we still have a chance at avoiding climate change’s most catastrophic impacts.
When released into the atmosphere, certain gases act like a blanket, preventing heat from escaping.
One of the most important heat-trapping gases is carbon dioxide (CO2),
which is released when we burn fossil fuels like oil, coal, and natural gas.
The world currently emits a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every day.
Carbon dioxide can trap heat for decades: roughly 20 percent will linger in the atmosphere for around 800 years.
Methane, another gas, traps heat in the atmosphere for nearly a dozen years at a more powerful level,
before transforming into carbon dioxide to trap heat for decades or even centuries.
Source: ucsusa
Climate Change Now
Climate Change Now
What is the Sun’s Role in Climate Change?
The Sun powers life on Earth; it helps keep the planet warm enough for us to survive.
It also influences Earth’s climate:
We know subtle changes in Earth’s orbit around the Sun are responsible for the comings and goings of the past ice ages.
But the warming we’ve seen over the last few decades is too rapid to be linked to changes in Earth’s orbit,
and too large to be caused by solar activity.
Source: NASA
