Global Warming- the Formation and Consequence

Global warming

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This page is about the current warming of the Earth's climate system. "Climate change" can also refer to climate trends at any point in Earth's history. For other uses see Global warming (disambiguation)

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Global mean surface temperature change from 1880 to 2015, relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. Source: NASA GISS.

Map of temperature changes across the world

key to above map of temperature changes

World map showing surface temperature trends (°C per decade) between 1950 and 2014. Source: NASA GISS.[1]

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Fossil fuel related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions compared to five of the IPCC's "SRES" emissions scenarios, published in 2000. The dips are related to global recessions. Image source: Skeptical Science.

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Fossil fuel related carbon dioxide emissions over the 20th century. Image source: EPA.

Global warming and climate change are terms for the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth's climate system and its related effects.[2]

Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming.[3][4][5] Although the increase of near-surface atmospheric temperature is the measure of global warming often reported in the popular press, most of the additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has gone into ocean warming. The remainder has melted ice and warmed the continents and atmosphere.[6][a] Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented over decades to millennia.[7]

Scientific understanding of global warming is increasing. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in 2014 that scientists were more than 95% certain that global warming is mostly being caused by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHG) and other human (anthropogenic) activities.[8][9][10] Climate model projections...