What role has human activity played in causing climate change?

Nowadays, the extent of the human contribution to modern global warming is a hotly debated topic. The current global average temperature is 0.85ºC higher than it was in the late 19th century. Earth’s surface has undergone unprecedented warming over the

last

centuries, and the most discussed question is whether human

activity

is the major cause of

this

phenomenon. As many studies show, the principal cause of

climate

change

is human

activity

and,

in particular

, the ways in which societies produce and use energy. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on

Climate

Change

’s fifth assessment report, human emissions and activities have caused around 100% of the warming observed since 1950. Human endeavours, like burning fossil fuels, cutting down rainforests, and farming livestock, result in

tremendous

Suggestion

tremendous changes

a tremendous change

change

in global

climate

patterns and increase greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere. Human causes could not have contributed to the shift in worldwide weather single-handedly.

On the contrary

, among

vast range

Suggestion

a vast range

the vast range

of

climate

forcers, non-human

climate

drivers

also

exist. For natural grounds for

climate

change

, among which are changes in volcanic

activity

and solar output, IPCC assigns a 3-5% role, noting,

however

, that these factors could

also

have been affected by human

activity

indirectly. What is more, large volcanic eruptions may result in the cooling effect rather than in the rise of the average global temperature. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, people have burned more and more fossil fuels and changed vast areas of land from forests to farmland. The solutions for recent global

climate

change

are within the human domain inasmuch as the primary cause of these environmental changes.