Attribution of recent climate change

Attribution of recent climate change attempts to discover what mechanisms are responsible for the observed changes in climate. The endeavour centers on the observed changes over the last century and in particular over the last 50 years, when observations are best and human influence greatest.

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Over the past 150 years human activities have released increasing quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that theory and climate models say should lead to increases in temperature - colloquially known as global warming. Other human effects are relevant - for example, sulphate aerosol are believed to lead to cooling - and natural factors also act.

Related Topics:
Greenhouse gas - Atmosphere - Climate model - Global warming - Aerosol

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Temperatures have risen in the last century (somewhere between 0.4 and 0.8°C) and the proportion of this warming that is due to human influence is still open to question. The current scientific consensus, as expressed in 2001 by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), and recently confirmed by a joint statement of the G8 academies of science, is that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities.

Related Topics:
Temperatures have risen in the last century - 2001 - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - National Academy of Sciences - G8

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A summary of IPCC climate research may be found in the IPCC assessment reports; the NAS report and an overview of the report may be found here; the degree of consensus is discussed at scientific opinion on climate change.

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