Earth Is Heating Faster Than Ever—And Humans Are Driving It

A glacier calving into the ocean, creating a splash of ice and water — Photo: Bernhard Staehli / Shutterstock

Scientists say Earth is now heating faster, and more widely, than at any time in at least the last 2,000 years — and that people are driving it.

Story Snapshot

Global temperatures have risen a little over 1 degree Celsius since the late 1800s, and the warming rate has sped up in recent decades.
Major science agencies say human-made greenhouse gases, mainly from burning fossil fuels, are the clear cause of this rapid warming.
New research finds the pace of warming since about 2015 is roughly double the long-term rate and the fastest ever measured.
Scientists say today’s warming is much faster than past natural warm periods and unmatched in at least 2,000 years.

Earth’s Temperature Is Climbing Faster Than Before

Since the late nineteenth century, Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by about 1 degree Celsius, or around 2 degrees Fahrenheit, above the preindustrial level. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show the planet warmed only about 0.06 degrees Celsius per decade from 1850, but more than three times that rate—about 0.20 degrees per decade—since 1975. NASA reports most of this warming has happened in just the past 40 years, with recent years clustered at the top of the record. Together, these numbers show a clear upward trend rather than just random swings.

Over the last few decades, the pace has quickened further. A key study summarized by Carbon Brief finds that from 1970 to 2015, global warming ran at about 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade, but since around 2015 the rate has nearly doubled. That same analysis estimates the world warmed about 0.35 degrees Celsius in the decade to 2025, the fastest increase ever seen in modern records. The Washington Post, using NASA data, likewise reports that the last thirty years are the quickest warming period since 1880, when reliable records began. These findings match what many people notice: heat waves feel more intense, and “normal” weather keeps shifting.

Human Activity Is the Main Driver of Rapid Warming

Leading science bodies say this rapid warming is not mainly due to natural cycles. NASA states that the current warming trend is “clearly the result of human activities since the mid-1800s” and is proceeding at a rate not seen over many recent millennia. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, drawing on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, concludes that human activities—chiefly greenhouse gas emissions—have “unequivocally” caused global warming, with global surface temperature reaching about 1.1 degrees Celsius above 1850–1900 by 2011–2020. The Royal Society likewise finds that most warming over the past fifty years cannot be explained by natural causes and requires a strong human influence.

These agencies point to well-measured changes in key gases. The Royal Society notes that people now emit about 10 billion tonnes of carbon each year, mainly from burning coal, oil, and gas, more than enough to explain the sharp rise in carbon dioxide. NASA adds that ancient climate records from ice cores, tree rings, ocean sediments, and corals show Earth’s climate responds strongly to shifts in greenhouse gas levels. Today, heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane are much higher than in preindustrial times and are climbing far faster than in past natural events. This matches the basic physics of the greenhouse effect: more of these gases means more heat trapped near the surface.

Why Scientists Say Today’s Warming Is Unprecedented

Scientists are not only tracking how much the planet has warmed, but also how fast and how widespread the change is. NASA’s climate evidence summary says current warming is happening at a rate “not seen over many recent millennia” and is roughly ten times faster than the average rate of warming after an ice age. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration explains that if some climate models are right and the world warms by about 4.1 degrees Celsius from 1990 to 2100, that rate would be about forty‑five times faster than the natural warming that ended the last ice age. In simple terms, changes that once unfolded over thousands of years are now being squeezed into a single human lifetime.

Planet Earth is 'still' in the Late Cenozoic Ice Age — an unbroken ice-age ecosystem that began roughly 34 million years ago with the glaciation of Antarctica.

Technically speaking, we are living through one of the colder periods in Earth’s geological history. How does that fit… pic.twitter.com/NgcNFJ844J

— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) July 24, 2026

Looking at the last two thousand years, recent studies find that both the speed and extent of current global warming exceed any similar event in that long record. One analysis described by the BBC concludes that today’s warming is “unparalleled” in 2,000 years, not just in how hot it gets, but in how globally consistent the change is. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports that many climate indicators—such as air temperature, ocean heat, and ice loss—are now changing at rates unseen for centuries to millennia. While scientists still debate exactly how much recent acceleration goes beyond the long‑term trend, they broadly agree the world is now warming quickly, mainly because of human choices.