What is causes global warming

Causes and Effects of Climate Change Learn the human impact and consequences of climate change for the environment, and our lives. Share Tweet Email. Why it's so hard to treat pain in infants. This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city Caracals have learned to hunt around the urban edges of Cape Town, though the predator faces many threats, such as getting hit by cars. India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big.

Environment Planet Possible India bets its energy future on solar—in ways both small and big Grassroots efforts are bringing solar panels to rural villages without electricity, while massive solar arrays are being built across the country. Go Further. Animals Climate change is shrinking many Amazonian birds. Animals Wild Cities This wild African cat has adapted to life in a big city. Animals This frog mysteriously re-evolved a full set of teeth.

Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Morocco has 3 million stray dogs. Meet the people trying to help. The global warming definition is one that many organisations such as National Geographic, the Met Office and other environmental groups agree on. It is the greatest environmental challenge facing the planet today. Global warming is caused by the increase in concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere related to human activities.

Global warming is the cause of climate change. Such variations in temperature cause climate change - events such as hurricanes, flooding, drought and severe rainfall that would not otherwise occur naturally are happening on a more frequent basis. These extreme weather events could be more frequent and intense and have irreversible repercussions on the environment. Nevertheless, climate change varies from place to place.

For example, the polar zones are warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. Continuing the current trajectory of global warming, the Arctic ice sheet could completely disappear in a few decades. The greenhouse effect is the main cause of global warming.

It is a natural phenomenon that contributes to maintaining the average temperature of the earth's surface. However, the more greenhouses gases there are in the atmosphere, the more heat is retained. This eventually leads to global warming. And the largest contributor to an increase in greenhouse gases is human activity. It is up to us collectively to reduce that. Source: Earth System Research Laboratories. What is 1 ppm? The impacts of global warming are being felt everywhere. Extreme heat waves have caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world in recent years.

And in an alarming sign of events to come, Antarctica has lost nearly four trillion metric tons of ice since the s. The rate of loss could speed up if we keep burning fossil fuels at our current pace, some experts say, causing sea levels to rise several meters in the next 50 to years and wreaking havoc on coastal communities worldwide. A: Each year scientists learn more about the consequences of global warming , and each year we also gain new evidence of its devastating impact on people and the planet.

As the heat waves, droughts, and floods associated with climate change become more frequent and more intense, communities suffer and death tolls rise.

Global warming is already taking a toll on the United States. Though everyone is affected by climate change, not everyone is affected equally. Indigenous people, people of color, and the economically marginalized are typically hit the hardest. Inequities built into our housing , health care , and labor systems make these communities more vulnerable to the worst impacts of climate change—even though these same communities have done the least to contribute to it. A: In recent years, China has taken the lead in global-warming pollution , producing about 26 percent of all CO2 emissions.

The United States comes in second. And America is still number one, by far, in cumulative emissions over the past years. As a top contributor to global warming, the United States has an obligation to help propel the world to a cleaner, safer, and more equitable future. Our responsibility matters to other countries, and it should matter to us, too.

But in order to avoid the worsening effects of climate change, we need to do a lot more—together with other countries—to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and transition to clean energy sources. Despite the lack of cooperation from the Trump administration, local and state governments made great strides during this period through efforts like the American Cities Climate Challenge and ongoing collaborations like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

Meanwhile, industry and business leaders have been working with the public sector, creating and adopting new clean-energy technologies and increasing energy efficiency in buildings, appliances, and industrial processes. Eleven-year averages are used to reduce the year-to-year natural noise in the data, making the underlying trends more obvious. Over the same period, global temperature has risen markedly.

It is therefore extremely unlikely that the Sun has caused the observed global temperature warming trend over the past half-century. Images of Change. Explore a stunning gallery of before-and-after images of Earth from land and space that reveal our home planet in a state of flux.

Climate Mobile Apps. Keep track of Earth's vital signs, see the planet in a state of flux and slow the pace of global warming with NASA's free mobile apps. Climate Time Machine. Travel through Earth's recent climate history and see how increasing carbon dioxide, global temperature and sea ice have changed over time. Eyes on the Earth.