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Muse Spark 1.2Sep 18, 2026meta/muse-spark-1.2-20260805

Is climate change real?

Is climate change real? I'll pull the latest scientific evidence to answer.

Yes, climate change is real - this is the established position of the overwhelming majority of climate scientists and scientific organizations worldwide, based on multiple independent lines of evidence.

Scientific consensus

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

•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.
•A more recent review found that more than 99.9% of studies agree: Humans caused climate change
•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."

Claims that there is "no consensus" are false - NASA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change largely agree that scientific evidence -- not opinion -- suggests that climate change is real.

Evidence

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.

Scientists know this from both 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 observations include:

1. Global temperature rise:
While natural variability plays some part, the preponderance of evidence indicates that human activities—particularly emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases—are making our planet warmer.

•According to an ongoing temperature analysis led by scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), the average global temperature on Earth has increased by at least 1.1° Celsius (1.9° Fahrenheit) since 1880.
•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 global average surface temperature rose 0.6 to 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.1 to 1.6° F) between 1906 and 2005.

2. Rate of change is unprecedented:
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.

3. Other compelling evidence:
NASA summarizes the evidence as compelling and includes:

•The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters of ocean showing warming of 0.67 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969.
•The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. 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.
•Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.
•Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century.
•Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.
•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.
•Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%.

Can it be explained by natural causes alone?

Scientists have tested this with climate models:

> Climate model simulations that consider only natural solar variability and volcanic aerosols since 1750—omitting observed increases in greenhouse gases—are able to fit the observations of global temperatures only up until about 1950. After that point, the decadal trend in global surface warming cannot be explained without including the contribution of the greenhouse gases added by humans.

Changes in the Sun's brightness, volcanic eruptions, and variations in Earth's orbit are still in play today, but their influence is too small or they occur too slowly to explain the rapid warming seen in recent decades. In fact, observations show the pattern expected from greenhouse gas effects: Earth's surface and troposphere have warmed, but the stratosphere has cooled, which would not occur if the Sun were the main cause.

In short, Earth-orbiting satellites and other technologies collecting many different types of information all over the world reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate, and that change is now predominantly driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases.

Citations (3)

  1. 1nasa.govGovernment
    Climate Change - NASA Science

    Backs: “There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.”

  2. 2nasa.govGovernment
    World of Change: Global Temperatures - NASA Science

    Backs: “Scientists know this from both 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 observations include: 1. Global temperature rise: While natural variability plays some part, the preponderance of evidence…”

  3. 3nasa.govGovernment
    Global Warming - NASA Science

    Backs: “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 global average surface temperature rose 0.6 to 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.1 to 1.6° F) between 1906 and 2005.”