University of Kwazulu-Natal

Climate Change Is Real It S Happening And It S Time To Make It

Bonisiwe Shabane
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climate change is real it s happening and it s time to make it

We found the psychological impetus people need to take action on climate change — realizing it will affect them and their way of life personally. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Climate change is real. It’s happening. Now.

Here. Wherever you are. Recognizing that climate change is immediate, close, and affecting people's way of life is one of the key messages we need to communicate to spur them to act. Despite efforts from bad faith actors trying to spread misinformation and disinformation, the public overwhelmingly accepts that much more urgently needs to be done to address climate change. But in order to meaningfully limit warming, we need to enact policies that will alter the lives of billions of people. There is unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate.

Human activity is the principal cause. Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 800,000 years, there have been eight cycles of ice ages and warmer periods, with the end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the... Most of these climate changes are attributed to very small variations in Earth’s orbit that change the amount of solar energy our planet receives. The current warming trend is different because it is clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s, and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia.1 It is undeniable that... This extra energy has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land, and widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere have occurred.

Earth-orbiting satellites and new technologies have helped scientists see the big picture, collecting many different types of information about our planet and its climate all over the world. These data, collected over many years, reveal the signs and patterns of a changing climate. Scientists demonstrated the heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases in the mid-19th century.2 Many of the science instruments NASA uses to study our climate focus on how these gases affect the movement... From the measured impacts of increases in these gases, there is no question that increased greenhouse gas levels warm Earth in response. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges our planet is facing right now, and it’s something that affects everyone, no matter where you live. You’ve probably heard a lot about it in the news, but have you ever wondered what it actually means and how we know it’s real?

Well, buckle up, because we’re about to break it down in our article today! In simple terms, climate change is the long-term change in the average weather patterns on Earth. This includes things like rising temperatures, extreme weather events, and changes in rainfall patterns. While the planet’s climate has always fluctuated over millions of years, the current rate of change is happening much faster than ever before, and humans are a big reason why. A major reason for the rapid climate change and global warming we’re experiencing is the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas. When we burn these fuels for energy, it releases carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

These gases trap heat from the sun, making the Earth warmer. This is called the “greenhouse effect,” and while it’s a natural process that keeps our planet warm enough to support life, human activity is supercharging it, causing temperatures to rise too quickly. Scientific academies, professional societies, associations, governmental and nongovernmental organizations and published research worldwide are aligned. Despite the absence of El Niño, the year 2025 is on track to be one of the three warmest years on record globally. Extreme heat is becoming more common. Here’s why.

Stronger wind speeds, more rain, and worsened storm surge add up to more potential destruction. Across most of the U.S., extreme precipitation is on the rise. Here’s what you can do to prepare for a more flood-prone future. Human activities are causing world temperatures to rise, posing serious threats to people and nature. Things are likely to worsen in the coming decades, but scientists argue urgent action can still limit the worst effects of climate change. Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth's average temperatures and weather conditions.

The world has been warming up quickly over the past 100 years or so. As a result, weather patterns are changing. Since the 1980s, each decade has been warmer than the previous one, the UK Met Office says. We know the world is warming because people have been recording daily high and low temperatures at thousands of weather stations worldwide, over land and ocean, for many decades and, in some locations, for... When different teams of climate scientists in different agencies (e.g., NOAA and NASA) and in other countries (e.g., the U.K.’s Hadley Centre) average these data together, they all find essentially the same result: Earth’s... (bar chart) Yearly temperature compared to the twentieth-century average from 1850–2023.

Red bars mean warmer-than-average years; blue bars mean colder-than-average years. (line graph) Atmospheric carbon dioxide amounts: 1850-1958 from IAC, 1959-2023 from NOAA Global Monitoring Lab. NOAA Climate.gov graph, adapted from original by Dr. Howard Diamond (NOAA ARL). In addition to our surface station data, we have many different lines of evidence that Earth is warming (learn more). Birds are migrating earlier, and their migration patterns are changing.

Lobsters and other marine species are moving north. Plants are blooming earlier in the spring. Mountain glaciers are melting worldwide, and snow cover is declining in the Northern Hemisphere (Learn more here and here). Greenland’s ice sheet—which holds about 8 percent of Earth’s fresh water—is melting at an accelerating rate (learn more). Mean global sea level is rising (learn more). Arctic sea ice is declining rapidly in both thickness and extent (learn more).

The Greenland Ice Sheet lost mass again in 2020, but not as much as it did 2019. Adapted from the 2020 Arctic Report Card, this graph tracks Greenland mass loss measured by NASA's GRACE satellite missions since 2002. The background photo shows a glacier calving front in western Greenland, captured from an airplane during a NASA Operation IceBridge field campaign. Full story. We know this warming is largely caused by human activities because the key role that carbon dioxide plays in maintaining Earth’s natural greenhouse effect has been understood since the mid-1800s. Unless it is offset by some equally large cooling influence, more atmospheric carbon dioxide will lead to warmer surface temperatures.

Since 1800, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased from about 280 parts per million to 410 ppm in 2019. We know from both its rapid increase and its isotopic “fingerprint” that the source of this new carbon dioxide is fossil fuels, and not natural sources like forest fires, volcanoes, or outgassing from the... Climate change is unequivocally real. Decades of rigorous research, meticulous data collection, and consistent findings across multiple independent scientific disciplines paint a clear and undeniable picture: the Earth’s climate is changing at an unprecedented rate, primarily due to human... The question of whether climate change is real is no longer a matter of scientific debate. The overwhelming consensus among climate scientists, affirmed by leading scientific organizations worldwide, is that the Earth is warming, and human activity is the dominant cause.

This conclusion is not based on opinion or conjecture but on a vast body of evidence derived from multiple independent sources. The fundamental principle driving climate change is the greenhouse effect. Certain gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O), trap heat that would otherwise radiate back into space. This natural process keeps the Earth warm enough to support life. However, human activities, particularly the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas), have significantly increased the concentration of these greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Ice cores extracted from glaciers and ice sheets provide a detailed record of past atmospheric conditions.

Analysis of these cores reveals a strong correlation between greenhouse gas concentrations and global temperatures over hundreds of thousands of years. Crucially, current greenhouse gas levels are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years and are rising at a rate never before observed. Instrumental temperature records, meticulously collected since the late 19th century, show a clear and consistent warming trend. Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times (around 1850), and the warmest years on record have all occurred in the last decade. This warming is not uniform across the globe, with some regions experiencing more significant temperature increases than others. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Photo: Tatiele Azeredo Leading climate scientists tell us we now have 4 years to move civilization off fossil fuels to avert climate catastrophe. The science is clear. We must act in time. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Climate Emergency Day 2024. Photo: Jane Doe

We still have time to create a just, livable future. The Climate Clock tells us what we need to do by when. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Climate Emergency Day 2024. Photo: Jane Doe

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