Is climate change accelerating and is it worse than we expected? - New Scientist
Is climate change accelerating and is it worse than we expected? | New Scientist
Melting icebergs near Horseshoe Island in Antarctica in February Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Melting icebergs near Horseshoe Island in Antarctica in February
Sebnem Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Unprecedented bouts of extreme weather and related events around the world raise the question of whether climate scientists have underestimated how fast the world is warming and how severe the consequences will be. Here are the key facts you need to know.
Is the world warming faster than we expected?
No, it isn’t. The rise in t he average global surface temperature measured so far is well within the range that climate models have projected for levels of greenhouse gases …
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.