Is climate change real? I'll gather the latest scientific evidence to answer you.
Yes, climate change is real — this is the conclusion of overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus.
Scientific Consensus
•There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.
•According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), "Since systematic scientific assessments began in the 1970s, the influence of human activity on the warming of the climate system has evolved from theory to established fact."
•The vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.
•A 2019 review found the consensus to be at 100%, and a 2021 study concluded that over 99% of scientific papers agree on the human cause of climate change.
•The IPCC report says there is 95 percent certainty that humans have caused most of the warming of the planet's surface that has occurred since the 1950s, and that it is extremely likely (95-100% probability) that most of the warming since 1950 has been due to human influence.
•The IPCC concluded that: warming of the climate system is unequivocal; human influence on the climate system has been the dominant cause, and that it is unequivocal that human activity is causing climate change, is the strongest statement that the IPCC has ever made.
How We Know It's Different This Time
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.
Most of these historic climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth's orbit that 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. 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. 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.
Compelling Evidence of Rapid Change
NASA and other agencies summarize multiple independent lines of evidence:
•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.
•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. Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.
•The Ice Sheets Are Shrinking: 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.
•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. Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the expansion of seawater as it warms.
•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: 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.
•Ocean Acidification Is Increasing: Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.
In short, the natural climate variability exists, but it cannot explain the observed rapid warming, sea-level rise, ice loss, and ocean changes without accounting for human greenhouse gas emissions.