Science Source

Gerrit Hansen, Dáithí Stone

Nature Climate Change

Published date December 21, 2015

Assessing the observed impact of anthropogenic climate change

Provides a systematic assessment of the role of anthropogenic climate change for the range of impacts of regional climate trends reported in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report
Finds that almost two-thirds of the impacts related to atmospheric and ocean temperature can be confidently attributed to anthropogenic forcing
Finds, in contrast, that the evidence connecting changes in precipitation and their respective impacts to human influence is still weak
Finds that anthropogenic climate change has been a major influence for approximately three-quarters of the impacts observed on continental scales
States that the effects of anthropogenic emissions can now be discerned not only globally, but also at more regional and local scales for a variety of natural and human systems