Peruvian fishing boats used to return to shore each day heavy with anchovies, but in 1972 the boats returned to shore with empty nets.
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Learn how the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate fluctuation affects weather around the world.
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Accounting for all the energy that enters and leaves the Earth system helps us understand how the planet maintains a habitable temperature. This accounting of energy is known as Earth’s radiation budget.
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Supercomputers are revolutionizing how scientists study the Earth System and Climate. As computers become faster over time, models of our planet and its atmosphere can be more complex.
Earth is warming. While there is some variability year-to-year, the most recent years have been the warmest on record. Learn how Earth's temperature is taken and what record heat means.
Without the greenhouse effect, Earth’s temperature would be below freezing. It is, in part, a natural process. However, Earth’s greenhouse effect is getting stronger as we add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. That is warming the climate of our planet.
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How has our knowledge about Earth's climate grown over time? Use our interactive timeline to explore important and interesting scientific milestones, including when carbon dioxide was first discovered and when we learned about the heat-trapping ability of gases.
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How has the geosphere impacted Earth’s climate? Typically, the geosphere reacts on geologic timescales, affecting climate slowly and over millions of years. However, the burning of fossil fuels over the last 150 years has sped the impact of the geosphere on climate.
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How Volcanoes Influence Climate
Ice Cores Tell the Story of Climate