Global Change
Combustion of fossil fuels in industry, transport and power generation, leads to emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 . The CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere. The atmospheric concentration of CO2 today is 380 ppmv. This value corresponds to an increase of approximately 30% during the last 100 years. The CO2 concentration was constant for thousands of years until the beginning of the 20th century.
The global average temperature of the whole earth has been increasing for the past 100 years. Most of the increase in temperature has occurred after 1970, especially after 1990. The highest value was recorded in 1998. The temperature increase is due to the man-made emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide ( CO2 ), methane ( CH4 ) and nitrous oxide (N2O ).
