Climate change: the science
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Frequently asked questions.
The Committee on Climate Change is the independent advisor to Parliament, and the Government, on climate change issues. We are established by legislation passed by Parliament and are funded to provide independent advice consistent with the legislation. As such, we review existing and emerging evidence on a regular basis. The responses to the questions provided below reflect the current available evidence. We will review the responses as new evidence is produced.
1) The climate has changed in the past. Isn’t this just another natural cycle?
There are natural cycles, but what we are seeing now is very different. The main cycle of global change over the last million years has been in and out of ‘ice ages’, in which Earth’s average surface temperature changed by about 4–7°C. For the last 10,000 years we have been in a warm phase between ice ages, meaning we would expect gradual cooling rather than the rapid further warming seen since 1950. The pattern of ...
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