How do we know climate change is actually caused by humans? Haven’t there been cycles in the earth that were extremely hot or extremely cold?

It’s good to be sceptical and question what you’re told. Some people are unsure that the extreme changes in our climate are because of us – I mean what about the movie Ice Age?

Climate scientist Coleen Vogel explained that since the industrial revolution started in the 19th century (mid-1800s), Earth has risen by about 1.1°C, on average.

Coleen said that while it’s likely that Earth has been warmer than this, during the last interglacial period – about 125,000 years ago – back then, those periods of higher temperatures were caused by slow changes in the orbital characteristics of Earth, occurring over tens of thousands of years.

But the warming that has occurred since the pre-industrial era is rapid and cannot be explained by any natural process.

And so, the scientific community has found that global warming is a result of human activities – specifically the release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels.

It is not only average temperatures that are increasing, but also extreme temperature events, such as heatwaves.

Climate scientist Dr Pedro Monteiro told us that concentrations of carbon dioxide are the highest in the atmosphere over the past one million years, during which time the planet has developed the more stable interglacial climate periods that have enabled humans to emerge and thrive.

Pedro explained, “We are increasing carbon dioxide at a rate that is much faster than the capacity of the planet’s carbon cycle to compensate, mainly through the oceans.”