Highlights. Earth's temperature has risen by 0.14° F (0.08° C) per decade since 1880, and the rate of warming over the past 40 years is more than twice that: 0.32° F (0.18° C) per decade since 1981. 2020 was the second-warmest year on record based on NOAA's temperature data, and land areas were record warm.
The Earth was formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago. Until 3.8 billion years ago it was a completely inhospitable environment with the surface being mainly molten lava. The Earth eventually cooled enough for its crust to form. Land masses could then exist and, when it was cold enough to rain, the oceans formed.
Today's climate change is different from past climate change in several important ways: Natural causes are not responsible. None of the natural causes of climate change, including variations in the sun's energy and the Earth's orbit, can fully explain the climate changes we are seeing today.
Temperatures are rising world-wide due to greenhouse gases trapping more heat in the atmosphere. Droughts are becoming longer and more extreme around the world. Tropical storms becoming more severe due to warmer ocean water temperatures.
Over millions of years, Earth's climate has warmed up and cooled down many times. However, today the planet is warming much faster than it has over human history. Global air temperatures near Earth's surface have gone up about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the last century.
Earth's climate has fluctuated through deep time, pushed by these 10 different causes. Here's how each compares with modern climate change.
Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways.
Climate change is the long-term increase in the earth's average surface temperature and the large-scale changes in global, regional, and local weather patterns that result from that increase, caused by a significant increase in the levels of greenhouse gases that are produced by the use of fossil fuels.
The Short Answer: Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time. NASA scientists have observed Earth's surface is warming, and many of the warmest years on record have happened in the past 20 years.