Is climate change real?

I'll gather the latest scientific evidence to answer your question about climate change.

Yes, climate change is real - and there is unequivocal evidence that it is happening now and that human activity is the principal cause.

The Scientific Evidence

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

Key points:

•The 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 has moved from theory to 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."

•Multiple independent lines of evidence agree: 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.

•The trend is anthropogenic: 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. It is undeniable that human activities have produced the atmospheric gases that have trapped more of the Sun's energy in the Earth system.

•It is happening much faster than natural change:

•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.

What The Data Shows - The Evidence for Rapid Climate Change Is Compelling:

•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. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest.

•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.

•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.

•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%.

Scientific Consensus

•Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change. Most of the leading science organizations around the world have issued public statements expressing this, including international and U.S. science academies, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

•More recent surveys update this: More than 99.9% of peer-reviewed scientific papers agree that climate change is mainly caused by humans, according to a new survey of 88,125 climate-related studies. The research updates a similar 2013 paper revealing that 97% of studies published between 1991 and 2012 supported the idea that human activities are altering Earth’s climate.

In short, the natural climate has always varied, but satellites, thousands of temperature stations, ocean sensors, and paleoclimate records from ice cores, tree rings and coral reefs all point to the same conclusion: the Earth is warming unusually rapidly right now, and human greenhouse gas emissions are the dominant cause.

Citations (1)

1nasa.govGovernment
Climate Change - NASA Science
Backs: “The Scientific Evidence. There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”