Читать книгу Climate Change For Dummies - Elizabeth May - Страница 65

Sure, some uncertainty exists around exactly where the global climate system will hit tipping points in the atmosphere, how global changes will affect local weather, or how much of it is due to human activity. What if GHGs aren’t the only culprits behind climate change?

The climate is an incredibly complex system affected by the sun, cloud cover, and complex long-term trend. In this section, you read about possible other drivers for climate change and see why no other has nearly the effect of GHG emissions from burning fossil fuels.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says that it’s 99 percent certain that increasing carbon dioxide levels due to human activity are the major cause of climate change. The IPCC says that there’s less than a 1 percent chance that climate change is being caused by natural factors.

So, although some uncertainty exists, the debate on the human contribution is largely settled. With that said, some natural climate change drivers need discussion. That’s largely because, over the years, these natural climate change drivers have been advanced to counter the growing consensus that human activity, primarily by burning fossil fuels and cutting forests, is the primary cause of dangerous changes in our global climate system. Putting the other natural culprits in the following sections aside is key to focusing on what humanity must do to preserve a habitable planet.