Almost every scientist going agrees that the earth is warming. The only serious disagreements over climate change are around the causes, whether or not the destabilisation is due to human activities or natural ones. We know that the climate is changing in all sorts of ways, but it is difficult to sort out which changes are natural phenomena, and which ones are ours. The latest report for WIREs attempts to review the latest climate research, and show which changes have a definite ‘human fingerprint’, and which ones are still inconclusive.
So here are the things that can be linked to human factors:
- The rise in global surface air temperature
- Rise in sea temperatures
- Rise in atmospheric humidity
- Rise in precipitation – rain, snow, etc.
- Changes in rainfall patterns
- Increasing salinity in the Atlantic
Those are the ones with clear evidence that human activity is behind the change. You can click on the links to locate the studies.
The jury is still out on these. That doesn’t mean they’re not linked to CO2, but we can’t say for sure yet:
- Sea level rise
- increase in number of hurricanes
(more on the New Scientist blog)
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