claim: Climate change is caused primarily by human activities

Question

Human activities have released and continue to release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Although, the natural process does cause some release of carbon dioxide but not a the rate in which carbon dioxide is released from human activities. Human activities release many toxins other than carbon dioxide such as methane and nitrous oxide.

Answer 1

It is generally true. The main cause of greenhouse effect is carbon dioxide, which is mainly released by human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and farming. Since last decade, the atmosphere carbon dioxide increased steadily

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide

Comments

Nice work finding a solid source link and providing an explanation.

Answer 2

Human activities have caused Climate Change in some ways, with the way we are building different structures that release fossil fuels and create an access of carbon dioxide to the air. Along with the high amounts exchanged of CO2 from the ocean and land. 

https://www.science.org.au/learning/general-audience/science-climate-change/3-are-human-activities-causing-climate-change

Comments

Good job with your fact-check. You provided an explanation and a solid source link. Don't forget to add a rating (see the sidebar of this page). So for this claim, your rating might be "true, not misinformation."

Answer 3

Although I am unsure if climate change is caused primarily by humans, NASA reported on the 4 major gases that contribute to the Greenhouse Effect, with one of these gases being carbon dioxide which is often released by human activities. NASA also stated that humans, through industrial activities, have raised the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by almost 50% since 1750. 

https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/

Comments

Are you not sure if climate change is caused primarily by humans or through your fact-check did you find that out? Solid fact-checks involve digging deep and searching for answers or finding experts who might say the answer is unknown (if that's what you found out while conducting your fact-check). Also, going forward, please include a rating (see the sidebar of this page for more information).

Answer 4

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, climate change is mainly exacerbated by human activity due to the burning of fossil fuels. In 2009, the Union published this article: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/are-humans-major-cause-global-warming which states that "as we collect more data, our confidence in human-caused climate change only grows higher." The EPA has also published research suggesting that human activity has been the primary cause of climate change: https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change

Answer 5

According to British Geological Survey, there are multiple factors that contribute to climate change. Human activity is one of them, but it is not the only one.

"Causes of climate change include: the strength of the sun, changes in the Earth's orbit, axial tilt, and precession, changes in land cover, meteorite impacts and many other factors"

These factors are natural and astronomic factors that are excluded from human activities. Therefore, the claim is not true.

The British Geological Survey is a world-leading geological survey and global geoscience organization focused on public-good science for government and research to understand the earth and environmental processes.

Source: https://www.bgs.ac.uk/discovering-geology/climate-change/what-causes-the-earths-climate-to-change/

Answer 6

The claim that climate change is caused primarily by human activities is true. 

EPA, United States Environmental Protection Agency, makes the evaluation that “human activities have released large amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere”, and note that while “[natural] processes, such as…volcanic eruptions, also affect the earth’s climate…they do not explain the warming…over the last century” (https://www.epa.gov/climatechange-science/causes-climate-change). Through analysis of measures such as glacier lengths, ocean sediments, and the earth’s planetary orbit, EPA’s sources conclude that the increase in climate variation coincides with human activity post-Industrial Revolution and cannot be primarily or majorly accounted for by natural causes. One example is the increased concentration of greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide (https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1/). 

The site cites a Climate Science Special Report (CSSR), from the Fourth National Climate Assessment (https://science2017.globalchange.gov), and its findings are reiterated by Nasa’s Global Climate Change website (https://climate.nasa.gov/causes/), stating that “In its Sixth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change…concluded that…the increase of CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere over the industrial era is the result of human activities and that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere”.  

 

Answer 7

During the industrial revolution, there was a large shift to machinery and manufacturing, which are processes that release more carbon emissions. The EPA states how it is 'very likely' that climate change was a result of human activity, mainly due to a substantial increase in carbon emissions. The EPA also cites the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stating that "It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land" ("Climate Change Science"). The three main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have all shown significant increases since the increase in machinery and factories. The increase in carbon emissions is significant because it causes large shifts in weather patterns. In relation to the ocean, these weather shifts can cause a melting of glaciers or an expansion of water which can lead to sea level rise. There is also the issue of ocean acidification if the carbon emissions that the ocean has to absorb continue to increase. 

 Causes of Climate Change | US EPA

Climate Change Indicators: Weather and Climate | US EPA

Climate Change Indicators: Oceans | US EPA

Answer 8

This is true! The article, which comes from one of the most highly esteemed authorities on the environment to date, is clear in saying that "it is extremely likely (> 95%) that human activities have been the dominant cause of that warming." This claim is backed by other big figures in the environmental space like NASA who states that "human activities are driving the global warming trend."

https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/causes/

Answer 9

This is absolutely true. Humanity has taken up a somewhat avoidant approach to taking responsibility and making change with reference to the climate crisis, but as the ramifications of our actions grow increasingly apparent they become harder to ignore. While it is true there are naturally occurring disasters that could have profound temporary impacts, humans have inflicted never-before-seen devastation on the earth. Human involvement is so substantial that we actually contribute to the scale of the aforementioned disasters. This subject reaches far beyond the scope of CO2 emissions alone, though directly carbon dioxide presents as a major threat to our increasingly fragile ecosystem. Our expansive impact regards development, industrialization, deforestation and habitat degradation, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable expenditure of resources, harmful agricultural and fishing practices, direct and secondhand pollutant emissions, and much more. The combination of all these things and more have created both positive and negative feedback loops, essentially placing us in a self perpetuating cycle of degradation and climate related catastrophe unless countered by a mass effort. 

https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/climate/could-climate-change-actually-wipe-out-humanity-researchers-say-we-need-to-study-this-asap/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/20/climate/butterfly-declines-insecticides-monarch.html

https://e360.yale.edu/features/redwood-forest-old-growth-restoration

https://e360.yale.edu/features/southern-africa-drought-crops

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/14/climate/congo-rainforest-logging.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58954530

https://news.uoregon.edu/kids-risk-parents-need-better-wildfire-smoke-warnings?utm_source=LI&utm_medium=social

Answer 10

This claim is 100% true. Climate change is not a natural cycle, and is completely caused by human activity. Since the late 1800s human activities have released CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), and fluorinated gases into the atmosphere. Scientist have measured the earth's change of climate by tracking ice/glacial melting, ocean sediment, and studying the ozone layer.

The release of these gases have caused the earth's climate to change unnaturally, and not just warming. Extreme weather events such as floods, hurricanes, and snow storms have become even more severe but also more frequent. There has also been loss of biodiversity because of these weather events that have gotten to be irreversible.

Volcanic eruptions and the sun's energy do also lead to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, but do not compare to the amount that humans have released.

Causes of Climate Change - EPA