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How Is Climate Change Caused By Humans

Climate scientists say they are 95 percent sure that human influence has been the main cause of global warming since 1950. They are about as sure of this as they are of cigarette smoke causes cancer.

Chart: Natural & Human Caused Coastal Flood Days In The U.s.

Why are they so confident? In part because they have a good understanding of how greenhouse gases can warm the planet, in part because the theory fits the available evidence, and in part because other theories are ruled out. Let’s break it down in six steps:

1) Scientists have long known that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere – such as carbon dioxide, methane, or water vapor – absorb certain frequencies of infrared radiation and scatter them back to Earth . These gases essentially prevent heat from escaping too quickly back into space, trapping that radiation at the surface and keeping the planet warm.

2) Climate scientists also know that concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have increased dramatically since the Industrial Revolution. Carbon dioxide has increased by 40 percent. Methane has increased by 150 percent. Through very simple chemistry, scientists can trace these increases in human activity such as the burning of oil, gas, and coal.

3) So it stands to reason that more greenhouse gases would lead to more heat. And in fact, satellite measurements have shown that less infrared radiation escapes into space over time and instead returns to the Earth’s surface. That is strong evidence that the greenhouse effect is increasing.

How Do We Know That Humans Are Causing Climate Change? These Nine Lines Of Evidence

4) There are other human fingerprints that indicate more greenhouse gases are warming the planet. For example, back in the 1960s, simple climate models predicted that global warming caused by increased carbon dioxide would cool the upper atmosphere (because the heat is trapped at the surface). Later satellite measurements proved just that. Here are some other similar predictions that have also been confirmed.

5) At the same time, climate scientists have rejected other explanations for the increase in average temperature over the past century. To take one example: solar activity can fluctuate from year to year, affecting Earth’s climate. But satellite data shows that total solar irradiance has decreased slightly in the past 35 years, even as the Earth has warmed.

6) More recent calculations have shown that it is impossible to explain the temperature increase we have seen in the past century without taking into account the increase in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. Natural causes, such as the sun or volcanoes, have an effect, but they are not enough on their own.

Ultimately, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that most of the warming since 1951 has been caused by human activities. Earth’s climate can certainly change from year to year due to natural forces (including Pacific Ocean oscillations, such as El Niño). But greenhouse gases are driving the upward trend in temperature.

The Missing Risks Of Climate Change

More: Here’s a table breaking down the different factors that affect the Earth’s average temperature. And there is much more detail in the IPCC report, especially here and here.

At , we believe that clarity is power, and that power should only be available to those who can afford it. That’s why we keep our work free. Millions rely on clear, high-quality journalism to understand the forces shaping today’s world. Support our mission and help keep it free for all by donating today. The 2015 Alaska fire season burned the second largest number of acres since records began in 1940. Human-induced climate change may have increased the risk of fire season. this rate of 34-60%. (Image credit: Philip Spor)

Human-caused climate change is likely to have increased the severity of heat waves experienced by India, Pakistan, Europe, East Africa, East Asia, and Australia in 2015 and contributed to making it the warmest year on record, according to a new study published today in a special programme. edition of the Journal of the American Meteorological Society.

The fifth edition of Interpreting Extreme Events from an off-site link with a Climate Perspective presents 25 peer-reviewed research papers that examine episodes of extreme weather in 2015 across five continents and two ocean It features research by 116 scientists from 18 countries analyzing both historical observations and changing trends along with model results to determine if and how climate change affected the event.

Causes Of Global Warming

The strongest evidence of human influence was found for temperature-related events — increased intensity of multiple heat waves, reduced snowpack in the Cascades, low Arctic sea ice extent in March and the incredible scale and length of Alaska’s wildfires.

“After five years of the BAMS Explaining Extreme Events report, we are seeing increasing evidence that climate change is making heatwaves worse in many areas around the world,” said the chief editor Stephanie C. Herring, a scientist at the National Centers. for Environmental Information. “As we get better at distinguishing between the effects of climate change and natural variability, the local importance and implications of this global phenomenon are becoming clearer.”

Several other events in 2015 were exacerbated by climate change, the report found. The probability of “sunny day” tidal flooding events in the Miami area, like the one that inundated coastal areas in September, has increased by 500 percent since 1994, according to one study. Human-caused climate change appears to have contributed to the record number of western Pacific typhoons and record winter sunshine in the United Kingdom.

But researchers found no evidence of an overall climate change signal in the delayed start of Nigeria’s spring rainy season or in the daily extreme rainfall figures that inundated Chennai, India in December. There was also no evidence that the extreme winter springs in the northeastern United States in 2015 were made more likely by human-induced climate change.

Atmospheric Research Provides Clear Evidence Of Human Caused Climate Change Signal Associated With Co2 Increases

Unnatural flooding in Port Orchard, WA on January 6, 2010. According to an analysis, flood events in nearby Seattle have increased from about once every 1-3 years around 1950 to once every 6-12 months today. (Ray Garrido, courtesy of the Washington Department of Ecology)

More than 100 papers investigating real events have been accepted for publication in this special report since the first issue in 2012. These studies include a place-based and event-specific approach to local climate change mark it, and answer the question how many. a particular event is likely to occur recently or has a change in intensity compared to the past.

Although there is strong evidence for the role of climate change in increasing the severity of heat waves, no evidence of a climate change signal was found in the majority of extreme precipitation studies published in this special issue. , Herring said.

However, she cautioned that the lack of clear evidence of a climate signal did not mean that climate change played no role in an event. A “null” result could mean that the event falls within the limits of natural variability. It could also mean that the framework of the research question or the research method chosen needs further development and improvement.

Human Caused Global Warming

Contributing authors choose the event they want to study, so the new studies of extreme weather events are not a random sample or a comprehensive study. They show how different methods can be applied to the analysis of real events, she said, and in cases where several groups are looking at the same event, the relative skill of different methods can be determined. comparison

“With this report, we continue to document the growing ability of scientists to identify how climate change is affecting today’s weather,” said Jeff Rosenfeld, editor-in-chief of the Journal The American Meteorological Association, which independently conducts the peer reviews for included studies. in this particular statement. “These accessible short papers demonstrate to the scientific community and the general public that once-impossible views of climate impacts are now within the reach of timely, rigorous science .”

Interpreting the 2015 Special Events from a Climate Perspective was edited by five scientists: Herring, James Kossin, and Carl Schreck III of the National Centers for Environmental Information along with Martin P. Hoerling and Andrew Hoell by Earth Systems Research Laboratory. Peter A. Stott of the UK Met Office’s Hadley Center was also an editor. Ecosystems and communities are being affected today in the United States and around the world.

A collage of typical climate and weather-related events: floods, heat waves, droughts, hurricanes, wildfires and glacial ice loss. (Image credit: )

Data Snapshot: Public Acceptance Of Human Caused Climate Change Is Gradually Rising

Global temperatures rose about 1.98°F off-site link (1.1°C) from 1901 to 2020, but climate change refers to more than temperature increases. It also includes sea level rise, changes in weather patterns such as droughts and floods, and much more. Things we depend on and value – water, energy, transport, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems and human health – are suffering

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