Is climate change real?

I'll gather the latest scientific evidence to answer whether climate change is real.

Yes, climate change is real according to the overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus.

What the science shows

The scientific community is certain that the Earth's climate is changing because of the trends that we see in the instrumented climate record and the changes that have been observed in physical and biological systems. The instrumental record is derived from thousands of temperature and precipitation recording stations around the world.

NASA states:
> There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.

These data are collected by Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies collecting many different types of information about our planet, and 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.

Key points:

•Current warming is unprecedented: 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.

•Human cause is established fact: 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."

•Warming is unequivocal: The IPCC reports that "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident" and the world's authority on climate science, the IPCC, says it is "unequivocal" that humans have warmed the planet, primarily through releasing greenhouse gases.

Evidence

NASA lists the compelling evidence for rapid climate change as:

•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

•The ocean is getting warmer, has absorbed much of this increased heat

•Ice sheets are shrinking, glaciers retreating, snow cover decreasing, sea level rising, Arctic sea ice declining, and extreme events increasing in frequency and ocean acidification increasing

All of these are documented through long-term observations.

Scientific consensus

Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.

•The vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.

•This consensus includes most leading science organizations around the world, including international and U.S. science academies and the IPCC.

•More recent surveys of 88,125 climate-related studies found more than 99.9% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is mainly caused by humans, updating the earlier 97% consensus found between 1991 and 2012.

A 2005 joint statement by 11 international science academies said: "It is likely that most of the warming in recent decades can be attributed to human activities", and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences states scientists have known "from multiple lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth's climate, primarily through greenhouse gas emissions."

Citations (3)

1nasa.govGovernment
Climate Change - NASA Science
Backs: “NASA states: There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”
2nasa.govGovernment
Evidence - NASA Science
Backs: “These data are collected by Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies collecting many different types of information about our planet, and 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…”
3nasa.govGovernment
Scientific Consensus - NASA Science
Backs: “All of these are documented through long-term observations. Scientific consensus. Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals show that climate-warming trends over the past century are extremely likely due to human activities.”