What leads to an increase in average global temperatures?

Answer 1

Enhanced Greenhouse Effect

Gradually over time more and more greenhouse gases of carbon dioxide mostly from the burning of fossil fuels (transport and electricity) and methane from cattle and melting tundra builds up in the atmosphere and traps more of the sun's rays and heat around the earth.

This is carbon and methane that has been locked away for millions of years. It has not been part of the normal carbon cycle, but now it is all being released. It is all this extra gas that is the problem.

A further cause has been the deforestation of the planet. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, but they can't if they're cut down.

The earth's temperature has been relatively standard for the past 1000 years until 1860 when the Industrial Revolution began, factories sprang up and we began burning coal. Since then the temperature has been rising rapidly.

See the graph links below.

Answer 2

Global warming is increasing due to the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We are continuously burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) and adding to the pollution and there are not enough trees to filter the carbon dioxide for all the pollution we produce.

Answer 3

It is generally accepted that the cause of the increasing temperature is the increasing concentration of greenhouse gases, especially that of CO2, which is the most significant greenhouse gas. The concentration of CO2 in the world has been increasing ever since the Industrial Revolution in the late 18th century. Prior to that, the carbon cycle was stable, carbon was produced by respiration of living beings, as well as from volcanoes etc through natural processes, and consumed by plants during photosynthesis. However, through anthropogenic activities - burning of fossil fuels, deforestation etc, the carbon cycle is no longer in equilibrium. The concentration of CO2 has increased by 35% since the age of industrialisation. In 1958, the CO2 concentration was about 315 parts per million (ppm) by volume; now it is around 383 - 385 ppm. Greenhouse gases work by absorbing heat from the sun (indirectly). The greenhouse effect works like this - energy comes from the sun and hits the Earth, some is reflected away by the atmosphere, some reaches the ground. The Earth then emits the energy back out into space, but some of this energy is 'trapped' by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, i.e. energy that would normally be going back out to space is kept on Earth, and the more energy you have, the hotter it is. There are arguments that the increase in CO2 concentrations are caused by natural effects, like underground volcanoes, etc, but this is unsubstantiated. The rise in CO2 levels IS caused by human activity; the fact that concentrations increased when the industrial revolution started (and humans began buring fossil fuels for energy) is evidence of this.

Answer 4

There is considerable controversy these days over what is actually happening in the world, and what a few global warming scientists have been SAYING is happening.

Any reasonable person who can read history books can see that the temperature varies greatly from winter to summer and from decade to decade. 2000 years ago, the Scots and Welch grew grape vines and made wines; the Roman wines of London were good enough to take to the Emperor in Rome. But the temperature cooled, and life got hard for a fre centuries that we call the "dark ages". Crops grew badly.

A few more centuries, and the weather warms up again. Now the Vikings can sail their longships to new landfalls, and discover a new vast land, fit for farming; they called it Green Land. Greenland Vikings raised dairy cows, and fished in new seas, and hunted new animals for food and meat.

Eric the Red, the Viking chief, sent his son Leif Ericson to lead an expedition even further west. Leif came to a coastline inhabited by skraelings. When his norsemen battled their way ashore, they named the place "Vinland" for the grape vines they found there. They were in Labrador, where no grape vines grow in our day. The world was warmer then.

And after a few hundred years, the weather shifted again. The Viking farmers of Greenland were noticing that each fall the seas froze over earlier, and melted later in the spring, and started sending their families home to Iceland. No boat ever made it back to their harbor; it had been frozen over, and stayed frozen over. The world quickly turned colder, and stayed cold for hundreds of years.

In about 1800, the world began to slowly grow more warm. Rivers didn't freeze as early, or as solidly. Now in 2009, our world may be almost as warm as the time of the Vikings.

Will the world continue to grow warmer? Will the cycle reverse again, and start becoming more cold? We're not sure.

Those Greenland dairy farms are still encased in the ice, but some of them are becoming visible.

Answer 5

The primary reason identified by climate scientists is because of the excess CO2 emitted by the human consumption of fossil fuel. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and humans have increased the content of this gas in our atmosphere some 30% since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

Answer 6

Global warming is increasing due to the increase of carbon dioxidein the atmosphere. We are continuously burning fossil fuels (coal,oil and natural gas) and adding to the pollution and there are notenough trees to filter the carbon dioxide for all the pollution weproduce.

Answer 7

Global warming is increasing because we are still burning fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas); this adds more greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.

Carbon dioxide is the main gas that we can control. Unfortunately, it remains in the atmosphere for many hundreds of years.

The recent promises made by all countries in the world at the Paris Climate Conference (2015) are all too low to keep the earth's warming below the desired rise of 2 degrees Celsius.

Answer 8

Global warming is being caused by deforestation and the burning of fossil fuel, both of which add extra amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases trap heat, and this is increasing global temperatures.

Answer 9

tthink its because they sun is bringing energy to the earth then the grreenhouse effect isnt letting it out, something like that.

Answer 10

Actually, the last decade and a half has shown no warming at all. In fact, the planet is cooling slightly.