It’s responsible for about 20% of global warming, according to National Geographic , and a big portion of methane comes from cows (more on that later). Monday on radio, Glenn and his co-hosts eagerly shared the findings of a new study that sought to confirm how climate scientists claim the earth is warming --- with catastrophic consequences. Causes of global warming, explained. To squeeze or stretch the graph in either direction, hold your Shift key down, then click and drag. While carbon dioxide takes up most of the headlines, there’s another greenhouse gas that’s seriously warming our planet: methane. Human activity is driving climate change, including global temperature rise. TThe current global average temperature is 0.85ºC higher than it was in the late 19th century. It might also get its genes passed on to the next generation. 1. Rising temperatures in the troposphere evidence the human fingerprint in global warming caused through the release of emissions from burning coal, oil, and natural gas. Warming is instead concentrated in the lower layers of the atmosphere, called the troposphere (where we live, where weather occurs, and where planes fly). As global warming brings an earlier start to spring, the early bird might not just get the worm. This means transitioning to renewable and carbon-free energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydro which cause less than 3% of the … And scientists say that unless we curb global-warming emissions, average U.S. temperatures could increase by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century. According to the study, conducted by two scientists and a veteran statistician, the data sets used to prove global warming ar "Global warming is important because it is so persistent and global in scale, and because it brings more extreme events such as heat waves — not because it makes every place warm all the time. Q: What causes global warming? With continued global warming, heat waves are expected to increase in frequency, duration and intensity. To further explore the causes and effects of global warming and to predict future warming, scientists build climate models—computer simulations of the climate system. Paleoclimatology—or the study of changes in climate throughout Earth’s history—uses evidence found in tree rings, ocean sediment, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks to determine that current warming is occurring roughly 10 times faster than the post-ice age warming… Each of the past three decades has been warmer than any preceding decade since records began in 1850. Jane Baldwin, a postdoctoral research scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, found that compound heat waves—heat waves that occur in sequence, one after the other—will also increase, making recovery from heat waves more difficult. Climate models are designed to simulate the responses and interactions of the oceans and atmosphere, and to account for changes to the land surface, both natural and human-induced. "This is fantastic," Glenn said. Causes and Effects of Climate Change. But there are other causes of global warming, too. 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