Glossary term: Global Warming
Description: Global warming is a warming of a planet's atmosphere by greenhouse gases, such as water molecules, carbon dioxide, methane, etc. This is caused by an increase in the greenhouse effect where more infrared radiation is trapped by the atmosphere, thus increasing the global mean temperature of a planet. The sources of greenhouse gases can be natural or (on Earth) additionally caused by human industrial activity. Global warming on Earth will have significant very long-term effects on the planet, including short- and medium-term changes in local weather patterns, habitat destruction, and sea level rise.
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
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