Human-Induced Changes in the Global Environment and Plants
摘要
Currently, global warming and climate change are occurring at an unprecedented speed. Plenty of scientific evidence supports that it has been caused by “greenhouse gases” emitted through human activities [73]. Natural factors that could strongly influence changes in the Earth’s surface temperature, such as solar activity, have remained relatively stable over the past 9000 years. Similarly, volcanic activity within the Earth has shown little variation over the past 2500 years. In contrast, the concentrations of major greenhouse gases produced by human activities—carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide—have increased by 47%, 156%, and 23%, respectively, compared to pre-industrial levels in the 1750s, reaching the highest levels in Earth’s history over the past 800,000 years. The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have led to the greenhouse effect, resulting in a rise in the Earth’s surface temperature. The average global surface temperature between 2001 and 2020 was 0.99 °C higher than that of the early industrial era in 1850.