Climate Change is primarily driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in the Earth’s atmosphere, acting as a blanket wrapped around the Earth. Since the industrial revolution, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen dramatically as humans burn fossil fuels that release carbon dioxide gas. Heat from the sun is reflected off the world’s oceans and into Earth’s atmosphere, where the build-up of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, prevent the heat’s escape.
For millennia prior to the 1900s, the atmosphere did not see carbon dioxide concentrations greater than 300 parts per million - now, levels are well over 400. The Earth’s temperature has risen about 2°F in response.