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Based on analysis of recent data on the
evolution of global temperatures, snow and ice covers, and
sea level rise, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) has recently declared that "warming of
the climate system is unequivocal." Global surface
temperatures, in particular, have increased during the past
50 years at twice the speed observed during the first half
of the 20th century. The IPCC has also concluded that with
95 percent certainty the main drivers of the observed
changes in the global climate have been anthropogenic
increases in greenhouse gases (GHG). While the greenhouse
effect is a natural process without which the planet would
probably be too cold to support life, most of the increase
in the overall concentration of GHGs observed since the
industrial revolution has been the result of human
activities, namely the burning of fossil fuels, changes in
land use (conversion of forests into agricultural land), and
agriculture (the use of nitrogen fertilizers and live stock
related methane emissions).
