What causes climate change?
Climate change is caused by natural factors, such as changes in the sun’s intensity or slow changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun, natural processes within the climate system like changes in ocean circulation. Climate change is also caused by human activities that change the atmosphere’s composition through burning fossil fuels and the land surface through deforestation, reforestation, urbanization and desertification.
In this section you will learn about: • What the greenhouse effect is What the key greenhouse gases (GHG) are and their importance Natural processes that cause the climate to warm or cool Feedback processes that enhance or weaken the effect of climate change triggers What has caused our climate to change in the past The Earth’s climate is changing, and we are the cause. Throughout our planet’s history, the climate has changed in dramatic ways. What makes this point in time different from the past is the human influence on this change, and the rate at which this change is occurring. Scientific evidence shows us that carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere have increased substantially since industrialization. The use of fossil fuels has become an increasingly important part of our lives. We rely on fossil fuels for everything from driving our cars, to heating our homes, to producing the products that we have come to rely on in our daily lives. As a result, carbon dioxide concentr
