[Climate scientists] around the world have signed the following statement:
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The global climate is changing unnaturally. The atmosphere and ocean are warming, amounts of snow and ice are decreasing, and the sea level is rising. These changes are happening faster than ever before, and there's no doubt that humans are the cause.

 

By using coal, oil and natural gas to supply energy (such as electricity), humans are producing greenhouse gases – like carbon dioxide – which build up in the atmosphere. The concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is now at the highest level for 800,000 years. 

 

If humans continue to produce energy in the same way, the atmosphere and ocean will keep on warming in the future.​ 

 

More and more, this will have flow-on impacts for daily life and on much of what people are used to. ​Those impacts are broad, will occur at different points, and may be surprising. Some impacts are happening now.

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There is no easy way to reverse these changes to the climate and some consequences will be unavoidable. But humans can limit future changes and impacts by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from energy production.