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Topic last updated: 09 Nov 2023

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Anthropogenic causes of climate change

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What evidence do we have the human activity is causing climate change?

An anthropogenic activity is an activity that has been undertaken by humans.

Anthropogenic activities which can cause climate change include deforestation, the destruction of peat bogs, farming (both cattle and rice in paddy fields) and burning fossil fuels. However, some people believe that anthropogenic activities do not lead to climate change, but that the changes that we are seeing are due to natural climate cycles.

Natural climate cycles are the reason why the Earth has been through several ice ages thousands of years ago, and so some people believe that global warming is similar to this. The evolution of the ice ages were not anthropogenic since anthropogenic activity increased during the industrial revolution. 

However, most evidence suggests that anthropogenic activity does cause global warming.

When making these conclusions, it is important to base your ideas on peer-reviewed science journals. If a science journal is peer-reviewed this means that it has been assessed by other scientists before publication, which reduces author bias.

You should also consider who conducted the research and who funded it, as sometimes companies can fund research for their own benefit, introducing bias. This is known as a conflict of interest, and all conflicts of interest should be outlined in the scientific journal.