Is climate change real?

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

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

The evidence is unequivocal

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

This conclusion is based on:

•Instrumental records - The scientific community is certain that the Earth's climate is changing because of the trends that we see in the instrumented climate record - thousands of temperature and precipitation recording stations around the world. The evidence of a warming trend over the past century is unequivocal

•Multiple independent lines of evidence - 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

•Key climate indicators - Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels; ice loss at Earth's poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods, and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes

Specific observed changes include:

•Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level

•Global sea level has risen by about 8 inches since 1901

•Since the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth's global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit), a number that is currently increasing by more than 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade

•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-caused, not just natural

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) stated that, "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land"

Changes observed in Earth's climate since the mid-20th century are driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere, raising Earth's average surface temperature

Natural processes, which have been overwhelmed by human activities, can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the Sun's energy output, variations in Earth's orbit), but the IPCC found with 95 percent certainty that humans have caused most of the warming of the planet's surface that has occurred since the 1950s

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."

Scientific consensus

Multiple independent studies have quantified the scientific consensus, finding between 90% and 100% agreement on human-caused global warming with multiple studies converging on 97% agreement.

NASA summarizes: Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists - 97 percent - agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change. This includes international and U.S. science academies, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a whole host of reputable scientific bodies around the world.

In short, the question of whether the climate is changing and whether human activity is the dominant cause since the mid-20th century is considered settled science by the major scientific organizations that study it.

Citations (1)

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