2. Global warming and climate change are terms for the
observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of
the Earth's climate system and its related effects.
Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate
system is warming.
Temperature changes vary over the globe. Since 1979,
land temperatures have increased about twice as fast as
ocean temperatures. Ocean temperatures increase more
slowly than land temperatures because of the larger
effective heat capacity of the oceans and because the ocean
loses more heat by evaporation.
3. The northern hemisphere is
also naturally warmer than
the southern
hemisphere mainly because
of meridional heat transport
in the oceans.
Hemisphere this does not
contribute to the difference
in warming because the
major greenhouse gases
persist long enough to mix
between hemispheres.
4. Initial causes of temperature changes
The climate system can
respond to changes
in external forcings.
External forcings can
"push" the climate in the
direction of warming or
cooling. Examples of
external forcings include
changes in atmospheric
composition (e.g.,
increased concentrations
of greenhouse gases, solar
luminosity, volcanic
eruptions).
5. Anthropogenic forcing
has likely contributed
to some of the
observed changes,
including sea level
rise, changes in
climate extremes as
the number of warm
and cold
days, declines in
Arctic see ice extent,
glacier retreat and
greening in Sahara.
Detection “is the
process of
demonstrating that
climate has changed
in some
defined statistical
sense, without
providing a reason for
that change”.
Detection does not
imply attribution of
the detected change
to a particular cause.
6. Extreme weather
Changes in regional climate are expected to include
greater warming over land, with most warming at high
northern latitudes, and least warming over
the Southern Ocean and parts of the North Atlantic
Ocean.
Future changes in precipitation are expected to follow
existing trends, with reduced precipitation
over subtropical land areas, and increased
precipitation at subpolar latitudes and
some equatorial regions.
7. Long-term effects
• On the timescale of centuries to millennia, the
magnitude of global warming will be determined
primarily by anthropogenic CO2 emissions. This is
due to carbon dioxide's very long lifetime in the
atmosphere.
• Stabilizing global average temperature would
require reductions in anthropogenic CO2 emissions.
Reductions in emissions of non-CO2 anthropogenic
greenhouse gases (e.g., methane and nitrous oxide)
would also be necessary.