Is climate change real? I'll gather the latest scientific evidence to answer you.
Yes — according to the overwhelming scientific evidence, climate change is real and is happening now.
> There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate. Human activity is the principal cause.
Here's what the major scientific organizations say:
1. The warming is observed and measured
•Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world
•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
•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
2. Humans are the principal cause
•Scientific evidence continues to show that human activities (primarily the human burning of fossil fuels) have warmed Earth’s surface and its ocean basins
•This is based on over a century of scientific evidence forming the structural backbone of today's civilization
•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."
•In its Sixth Assessment Report, the IPCC concluded that it is unequivocal that the increase of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere
3. The evidence is compelling and multiple lines converge:
•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: 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 - 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
•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
•Other indicators include glaciers retreating almost everywhere, decreasing spring snow cover, increasing extreme events, and ocean acidification increasing by about 30% since the Industrial Revolution
4. Scientific Consensus
•Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change
•Multiple independent studies indicate that an overwhelming majority of climate scientists agree recent climate change is primarily caused by human emissions; most commonly cited figures are ~97% among publishing climate experts, and literature-only analyses have found agreement exceeding 99%
Denying this overwhelming evidence ignores decades of rigorous, peer-reviewed research.
In short: Natural climate variability has always existed, but the rapid warming, sea-level rise, ice loss, and ocean heating observed since the mid-20th century is unprecedented in millennia and is driven by human greenhouse gas emissions — a conclusion supported by NASA, NOAA, the IPCC, and every major scientific academy in the world.