Diagram of climate change issue. It may be a change in average weather conditions or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions such as more or fewer extreme weather events. Learn how climate has changed since the last ice age and throughout longer stretches of geologic time. Climate change rising temperatures extreme weather events shifting wildlife populations and habitats rising seas and a range of other impacts will be seen as the climate changes. Climate change the periodic modification of earths climate caused by changes in the atmosphere and interactions between the atmosphere and various other geologic chemical biological and geographic factors.
Climate change broadly interpreted is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. Global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond. Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal. From shifting weather patterns that threaten food production to rising sea levels that increase the risk of.
On average temperatures have risen less than one degree since then the highest projections of greenhouse gas emissions known as representative concentration path. The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely greater. Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in earths orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives. And its still rising this nasa graph shows.
The magnitude of climate change beyond the next few decades depends primarily on the amount of heat trapping gases emitted globally and how sensitive the earths climate is to those emissions. The thermometer on the right shows warming since the late 1800s. This graph based on the. Replacing the fossil fuel technology which is reshaping the climate remains a massive task.
The amount of co2 in the earths atmosphere is far higher than at any point in at least the last 400000 years.