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In addition to global climate variability and global climate change over time, numerous climatic variations occur contemporaneously across different physical regions. The oceans' absorption of about 90% of excess heat has helped to cause land surface temperatures to grow more rapidly than sea surface temperatures. [ 132 ]
A study by Climate Central, a U.S.-based research group, looked at temperatures in 180 countries and 22 territories and found that 98% of the world's population were exposed to higher temperatures ...
In the 1980s, the terms global warming and climate change became more common, often being used interchangeably. [ 29 ] [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Scientifically, global warming refers only to increased surface warming, while climate change describes both global warming and its effects on Earth's climate system , such as precipitation changes.
Climate models are available on different resolutions ranging from >100 km to 1 km. High resolutions in global climate models require significant computational resources, and so only a few global datasets exist. Global climate models can be dynamically or statistically downscaled to regional climate models to analyze impacts of climate change ...
The rate of global tree cover loss has approximately doubled since 2001, to an annual loss approaching an area the size of Italy. [ 60 ] According to Food and Agriculture Organization , around 30% of Earth's land area is largely unusable for humans ( glaciers , deserts , etc.), 26% is forests , 10% is shrubland and 34% is agricultural land . [ 61 ]
All these factors lead to rapid growth of the global economy, while global population peaks and declines in the 21st century. Local environmental problems like air pollution are successfully managed. There is faith in the ability to effectively manage social and ecological systems, including by geo-engineering if necessary."
More than half of the world's population is in cities, consuming a large portion of food and goods produced outside of cities. [8] The UN projects that 68% of the world population will live in urban areas by 2050. [5] In the year 2016, 31 mega-cities reported having at least 10 million in their population, 8 of which surpassed 20 million people ...
Many parameters influence climate change scenarios. Three important parameters are the number of people (and population growth), their economic activity new technologies. Economic and energy models, such as World3 and POLES, quantify the effects of these parameters. Climate change scenarios exist at a national, regional or global scale.