Although the Earth’s climate has changed throughout history, the warming of the planet we are experiencing today cannot be attributed to natural cycles, rather human activity.
According to NASA, there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat in the last 650,000 years, which were mostly due to tiny changes in the Earth’s orbit. This impacted the solar energy that reached the planet, leading to changes in the climate.
Yet as a result of human activity leading to increased levels of greenhouse gasses since the mid-20th century, the current rate of global warming is unprecedented, as reported by NASA. This means that the rate at which the planet is warming today cannot be due to natural changes from slight variations in the Earth’s orbit, rather the result of human action.
According to the NOAA 2019 Global Climate Summary, the global annual temperature has increased at a rate of roughly 0.07°C per decade since 1880, and over twice that pace (0.18°C) since 1981. This emphasises the increasing rate of global warming. Further, the ten warmest years to have been recorded have occurred since 1998, and nine out of ten of these since 2005, according to the NOAA. The NOAA further reports that 2019 was the second warmest year to have ever been recorded, and was 1.15 °C above the pre-industrial average. This highlights the impact of human activity on the climate since pre-industrial times.
As the world’s temperature continues to rise, understanding the climate crisis today is paramount.
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