GlobalChange.gov

https://www.globalchange.gov/climate-change/whats-happening-why

 

Thousands of experiments undertaken by scientists around the globe have recorded temperature changes on the surface of the Planet, as well as in the atmosphere and oceans. A lot of other facets of the global environment are also shifting. Extreme high temperatures and heavy rainfall events are increasing, glaciers and snow cover are decreasing, and sea ice is receding. Seas are warming, rising, and growing more acidic and along the U.S. coastline, flooding is becoming more common. For decades and even years, greenhouse gas emissions from human activity will begin to influence the atmosphere of the Planet. At a rate much greater than that removed by natural cycles, humans contribute carbon dioxide to the environment, producing a long-lived gas trap in the atmosphere and oceans that forces the world to a warmer and warmer condition. Several lines of evidence suggest that human activities, in particular the emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and land-use change, are largely responsible for the changes in climate observed in the industrial period, especially in the last six decades. Over the industrial era, the ozone concentration of carbon dioxide, the main contributor to human-caused warming, has risen by around 40 percent. The natural greenhouse effect has been amplified by this transition, driving a rise in global surface temperatures and other widespread changes in the atmosphere of the Planet that are unseen in the history of human society. There are longer growing seasons, and major wildfires occur more regularly. Many animals are moved to different areas, and in addition to climate change, there are changes in the seasonal timing of major biochemical changes.