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NewsNot just carbon dioxide: Other Greenhouse gases
Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas, but other greenhouse gases are much more potent in smaller concentrations.
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NewsSolar influences
The sun is the primary source of Earth’s heat, so relatively small changes in solar output can affect our climate. Satellite observations since the late 1970s have shown a slight decrease in the sun’s total energy output. However, instead of cooling, the Earth has warmed over this period. Also, warming ...
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NewsGreenhouse gas emissions
Evidence that CO2 emissions are the cause of global warming is very robust. Scientists have known since the early 1800s that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap heat.
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NewsThe Earth’s natural climate cycle
Over the last 800,000 years, there have been natural cycles in the Earth’s climate, between ice ages and warmer interglacial periods. After the last ice age 20,000 years ago, average global temperature rose by about 3°C to 8°C, over a period of about 10,000 years.
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NewsIs the current climate change unusual compared to earlier changes in Earth’s history?
Climate has changed on all time scales throughout Earth’s history. Some aspects of the current climate change are not unusual, but others are. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has reached a record high relative to more than the past half-million years, and has done so at an ...
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NewsThe Causes of Climate Change
Scientists attribute the global warming trend observed since the mid-20th century to the human expansion of the “greenhouse effect”1 — warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere ...
