Global warming, a critical environmental challenge, signifies the long-term rise in Earth's average surface temperature primarily due to human-induced...
Global warming is the ongoing, long-term increase in Earth's average temperature primarily due to human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The main cause is the enhanced greenhouse effect, largely from human activities like burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas) for energy, deforestation, and industrial processes, which release carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Key impacts include rising sea levels, more frequent and intense heatwaves, extreme weather events (droughts, floods, wildfires), glacier melt, ocean acidification, and significant disruptions to ecosystems and agriculture.
While often used interchangeably, global warming specifically refers to the long-term heating of Earth's climate system observed since the pre-industrial period. Climate change is a broader term encompassing global warming and all other long-term shifts in weather patterns.