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GPT-5Sep 13, 2026openai/gpt-5-2025-08-07
Are humans responsible for climate change?
Yes
Yes. Multiple independent lines of evidence show humans are the primary cause of modern climate change.
•We’ve rapidly increased heat‑trapping gases by burning fossil fuels, deforesting land, and emitting other pollutants. CO2 has risen from about 280 ppm (pre‑industrial) to over 420 ppm today.
•The “fingerprints” match human causes: the lower atmosphere warms while the stratosphere cools, nights and winters warm faster than days and summers, land and the Arctic warm more than oceans, and oceans absorb most of the excess heat.
•Climate models reproduce the observed ~1.2°C global warming since the late 1800s only when human emissions are included; natural factors alone (solar and volcanic changes) cannot explain the long‑term rise and would have produced little warming or even slight cooling since mid‑20th century.
If you’d like, I can share key reports (e.g., the IPCC and the U.S. National Climate Assessment) or dig into any of these points.