Climate Week
2021 | Climate
Conference | Climate
Change Conferences | Global
Warming Meetings
Global warming occurs
when carbon dioxide (CO2) and other air pollutants and greenhouse gases collect
in the atmosphere and absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off
the earth’s surface. Normally, this radiation would escape into space—but these
pollutants, which can last for years to centuries in the atmosphere, trap the
heat and cause the planet to get hotter. That's what's known as the greenhouse
effect. The impacts of global warming are being felt across the globe. Extreme
heat waves have caused tens of thousands of deaths around the world in recent
years. And in an alarming sign of events to come, Antarctica has been losing
about 134 billion metric tons of ice per year since 2002. Global warming, the
gradual heating of Earth's surface, oceans and atmosphere, is caused by human
activity, primarily the burning of fossil fuels that pump carbon dioxide (CO2),
methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.