Tuhin Sanzid, New York:

Climate change is one of the greatest environmental challenges faced by societies today. It has significant implications on energy, food and water security as well as health and safety for countries and people around the world. It is having a greater impact on United State than people’s estimation.

It may seem strange to think of a global average temperature. The warmest and lowest temperatures on Earth right now are probably more than 100°F (55°C) apart, after all. In the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, temperatures fluctuate from night to day and between seasonal extremes. This indicates that while some regions of Earth are extremely hot, others are relatively cold. To speak of the "average" temperature, then, may seem like nonsense. However, the concept of a global average temperature is convenient for detecting and tracking changes in Earth's energy budget—how much sunlight Earth absorbs minus how much it radiates to space as heat—over time.

To calculate a global average temperature, scientists begin with temperature measurements taken at locations around the globe. Because their objective is to track changes in temperature, observations are translated from absolute temperature readings to temperature anomalies—the difference between the recorded temperature and the long-term average temperature for each site and date. Multiple different research groups across the world do their own examination of the surface temperature data, and they all indicate a similar upward trend.

Scientists utilize ambient temperatures and other data to estimate the missing values in remote locations with limited measuring capabilities. A worldwide temperature average is then computed using each value. This procedure offers a dependable and regular way to track variations in the Earth's surface temperature throughout time. See our Climate Data Primer to learn more about the construction of the global surface temperature record.

What’s going on over USA

Climate change is impacting the United States with rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, with some regions experiencing more warming than others.

In the past few years, winter in the United States has come later. Warmth has left later. Humidity is higher than before. Heat feels hotter. All of these can be considered effects of climate change. The United States has experienced a significant increase in average temperatures, with the 10 most recent years being the hottest on record.

The effects of climate change on tropical cyclones and sea level rise are influencing various regions across the country. Over the past 120 years, average temperatures in nearly all areas of the U.S. have risen. Throughout the 21st century, annual temperatures in the U.S. have almost consistently surpassed the average recorded from 1971 to 2000.

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Climate change poses a significant challenge in the United States. It influences the environment in numerous ways, encompassing higher temperatures, rising sea levels, droughts, flooding, and more. These phenomena impact essential resources and valued aspects of our lives, such as water, energy, transportation, wildlife, agriculture, ecosystems, and human health.

Experts agree that climate change is a real and growing threat to the United States, with evidence showing a warming planet, rising sea levels, and more frequent and intense extreme weather events, demanding urgent action to mitigate its impacts.

Global temperature changes in the past and the future

The increase in the global average temperature indicates that more regions are warming than cooling, even though warming has not been consistent around the planet. Since 1850, the average annual increase in land and ocean temperatures has been 0.11° Fahrenheit (0.06° Celsius) every decade, or almost 2° F overall, according to NOAA's 2023 Annual Climate Report. Since 1982, the pace of warming has increased by more than three times, at 0.36° F (0.20° C) per ten years.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's most recent Synthesis Report states that there is no disagreement over the reason for this warming trend. It states that there is no doubt that human activity has caused global warming, with the global surface temperature rising by 1.1°C between 2011 and 2020, mostly due to greenhouse gas emissions.

Experts compiled the relative importance of every known factor influencing Earth's average surface temperature in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report on the Physical Basis of Climate Change. With a best estimate of 1.07°C [2.01 ˚F], the likely range of the total increase in global surface temperature caused by humans from 1850–1900 to 2010–2019 is 0.8°C to 1.3°C. The global surface temperature was likely to have changed by 1.0°C to 2.0°C due to well-mixed greenhouse gases (GHGs), 0.0°C to 0.8°C due to other human drivers (primarily aerosols), –0.1°C to +0.1°C due to natural (solar and volcanic) drivers, and –0.2°C to +0.2°C due to internal variability during this time.

The extent of warming that Earth will endure in the future is influenced by the quantity of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we release in the coming decades. Currently, our actions—such as burning fossil fuels and, to a lesser degree, deforestation—contribute approximately 11 billion metric tons of carbon (which is just over 40 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide) to the atmosphere annually. Since this amount exceeds what natural processes can eliminate, the levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide rise each year.

Causes of Climate Change

At the root of climate change is a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. The term scientist describes how certain atmospheric gases "catch" heat "traps." Otherwise, it glows upwards from the planet's surface. On the one hand, there is the greenhouse effect of the existence of life on Earth. Without it, the planet is cold and unreliable.

As a result, natural cycles and weather patterns have been drastically changed by global warming, leading to high heat, prolonged drought, greater flooding, stronger storms, and rising sea levels. Together, these unpleasant and occasionally fatal consequences have been dubbed "climate change."

Read more article: Frustration, also hope, about the UN's role in climate change

The goal of describing and talking about the human causes of climate change is not to shame or try to make people feel bad about the decisions they have made. In order to come up with workable solutions, it is important to define the issue. And, despite the fact that doing so might occasionally be challenging or even uncomfortable, we must honestly confront its causes. Human civilization has made an extraordinary leap in productivity, some of which have led to our now overheated planet. By innovating the same capabilities and engaging in a new sense of shared responsibility, we can find ways to cool the planet, fight climate change, and revise courses for a fair, fair and sustainable future.

Environmentalists are suggesting various recommendations to tackle the effects of climate change. Notable among these are: Maximizing Nature's Ability to Store Carbon, Promoting Smart Clean Energy Policies, cultivating a Shift to Planet-Friendly Food Systems, Bolstering Resilience for Habitats and Communities, Inspiring Productive Conversations, and Educating for Climate Action.

What we do between now and 2030 will determine whether we can slow warming enough to avoid climate change’s worst impacts. We must drastically cut emissions and remove some carbon from the atmosphere. Fortunately, plants naturally absorb and store carbon. By protecting natural habitats and carefully managing farmland and forests, we can store billions of tons of this “living carbon.”

Experts Opinion

Dr. Brian Henning, director of the Gonzaga University Institute for Climate, Water and the Environment said to a media that the longer we wait to take significant action, the larger and the more complicated those problems get.

He also said reducing reliance on fossil fuels which release greenhouse gases, promoting net-zero carbon emission transportation and mitigating the exploitation and pollution of natural ecosystems are paramount in combating the effects of climate change.

Jason West, Ph.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill recently said in a program that It's not that hard to address climate change, we have the solutions in our hands. We know three things well — that greenhouse gases cause warming by absorbing infrared radiation, that their concentrations are increasing, and that global temperatures have increased steadily since 1880.

He also said global warming happens when the Earth takes in more heat than it sends into space, which is called positive radiative forcing. Gases that retain heat, such as carbon dioxide, make the process worse.