Climate change: Causes and effects

Image caption: “Yearly temperature compared to the twentieth-century average (red and blue bars) from 1880–2019, based on data from NOAA NCEI, plus atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (gray line): 1880-1958 from IAC, 1959-2019 from NOAA ESRL.” Image credit: original graph by Dr. Howard Diamond (NOAA ARL), and adapted by NOAA Climate.gov. Article by Chelsea Gohd. Space.com – May 11, 2022.

Climate change is the long-term, continued shifting of temperatures and weather patterns on planet Earth; an evolution driven by human activities.

In the over 4.5 billion years that Earth has existed, orbiting the sun in the small stellar neighborhood we call home, our planet has gone through many changes. But humans have had a profound impact.

Burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) produces “greenhouse gasses” like carbon dioxide. These gases, which are produced in industries including agriculture, energy and more, have earned this name because once in Earth’s atmosphere, they trap heat against our planet, preventing it from escaping and creating a warming “greenhouse effect.” […]

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