The climate crisis, together with the decline in biodiversity, is the greatest challenge facing humanity. Right now, the rise in average temperatures is having a profound effect on our climate, and these effects will become even more significant over the years.
Now we still have a chance to change this situation and prevent the devastating effects of climate change. If we plan to reduce the temperature rise to 1.5 °C compared to pre-industrial levels, the emissions of man-made greenhouse gases should be reduced by 50 percent by 2030 according to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
Despite climatic changes, such as changes in the seasons, ocean currents, volcanic activity, solar radiation, other climatic events (e.g. El Niño or Indian monsoons), etc. the climate is quite stable by nature, i.e. these changes occur with a certain regularity, winter always changes to spring and monsoons to come in a certain season.
Thus, climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns, which can occur over a period of decades to millions of years. It can be a change in normal weather patterns, such as a change in the dates of the tropical rainy season, or a change in the frequency of extreme weather events such as floods, droughts, and storms.
Fluctuations in the amount of sunlight and radiation, called Milankovitch Cycles, are the most significant driver of climate change over the past thousands to millions of years. They have also been the main cause of the last 4 cycles of glaciation and warming epochs. However, the Earth’s climate has changed significantly over the past 150 years, and it is important to understand what has caused such dramatic changes in such a short period of time.
Many studies have documented the rise in global mean temperatures since the mid-1900s. This process is called global warming and is attributed to human activities, particularly CO2 emissions into the atmosphere, a byproduct of burning fossil fuels. The anthropogenic causes of climate change have been verified by consensus of scientists around the world.
A special report on global warming prepared by the IPCC and published in October 2018 further confirms that human activity has the greatest influence on the increase in the average temperature of the planet: “According to some estimates, human activity has caused a temperature increase of about 1.0 °C compared to pre-industrial levels (approximate range of 0.8 °C to 1.2 °C). At this rate, global warming is likely to reach a temperature increase of 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052 (high confidence).