Is climate change real?
The short answer is yes. The evidence that the planet is warming, and that human activity is the main cause, is strong and comes from many independent sources. It does not depend on one study, one model or one graph.
What the evidence actually shows
Climate change is real because separate measurements, taken in different ways by different teams, all point the same way. Thermometers on land and at sea show long-term warming. The oceans are storing more heat. Glaciers and ice sheets are losing ice. Sea level is rising. The amount of CO2 in the air has gone up sharply, and its chemical fingerprint points to fossil fuels.
No single line of evidence carries the whole case. Together they are very hard to explain any other way. That is the point of this site: not to ask you to trust anyone, but to show that the independent measurements agree.
Many independent lines of evidence
People sometimes picture climate science as one temperature chart that could be wrong or fiddled. It is not. Surface thermometers, satellites, ocean floats, tide gauges, ice records and direct CO2 measurements are run by different groups using different methods. When all of them move in the same direction, the case stops depending on any one of them.
You can work through each line of evidence on the evidence page, and see CO2 and temperature plotted on the same timeline there.
The common objections, answered
Many doubts are reasonable on the surface. The climate has changed before. It was cold last winter. CO2 is only a small part of the air. Each of these has a clear answer, and none of them overturns the measurements.
The most common objection, that this is just a natural cycle, is answered in full on the natural cycle page. The rest are covered in common arguments.
What this does not claim
This site does not claim that every storm is caused by climate change, that every climate policy is wise, or that models are perfect. It makes a narrower, stronger claim: the long-term warming trend is real, and human greenhouse gas emissions are the main cause.
Frequently asked
Yes. Independent measurements of temperature, ocean heat, ice, sea level and atmospheric CO2 all show that the planet is warming, and the warming is mainly caused by human greenhouse gas emissions.
Human activity is the main cause of recent warming. The extra CO2 in the atmosphere carries the chemical signature of fossil fuels, and natural factors such as the Sun and volcanoes do not explain the timing, size and pattern of the warming.
Natural cycles are real, but the causes behind past cycles, such as slow orbital changes and volcanic activity, are not acting now. The current warming is far faster and is led by CO2 from human activity.