Let’s begin with causes of climate change. The causes of climate change is more important for us to understand the science of climate change, for simple reason, that we need to attribute the causes whether either to the natural processes or human-induced processes, and this attribution of climate change is the fundamental or bedrock for understanding the climate change concept and science of it.
In this regard if you look at it the causes can be either natural causes or human actions/human activities. We know that the earth’s climate is not static, always changing since its formation. Earth’s climate was changing due to Natural drivers of climate change.
Natural drivers (forces originating from Earth’s environment, not human activity) include changes in solar radiation (energy coming from the Sun), volcanic eruptions (mountains releasing gases and particles through explosions), and cycles like Milankovitch cycles (long-term changes in Earth’s orbit and tilt affecting solar energy received), which affect climate over tens of thousands to millions of years. Some events—like volcanic eruptions or asteroid impacts—have faster, immediate effects but tend to cool or warm the climate for only a few years.
However, the Human Action and activities in the post-industrialization era resulted in increases of radiatively active gases (gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) in the atmosphere leading to increasing the global surface temperature. We know fully well that since industrialization, the amount of fossil fuel use (burning coal, oil, and gas for energy) and human activities such as urbanization, deforestation, and intensive agriculture have changed the earth’s landscape drastically. The main driver is the use of fossil fuels, which today account for more than 75% of all greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global climate change.
Due to the increase in radiatively active gases, the anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change is a cause for great concern because of its wide-ranging impacts on the environment—including the biosphere (all living things), whether terrestrial (land-based) or aquatic (water-based) ecosystems.
At any given time, the earth’s climate is subjected to multiple influences, both natural and human-induced. Attribution (scientific analysis to determine what is causing observed climate changes) is essential for understanding the roles these influences play.
Infographic suggestion:
Two branches labeled ‘Natural Causes’ and ‘Human Causes’, with icons for sun, volcano, and asteroid under ‘Natural’ and factory, city skyline, farm, and car under ‘Human’. Add pie chart showing >75% greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels (UN 2025).
When you look at the natural drivers such as the solar activity, they are part of long, repeated cycles impacting climate over very long periods. For instance, changes in the sun’s energy output have played a role in past climate changes, but satellite measurements since 1978 show no net increase in the sun’s output even as global surface temperatures have risen sharply. Cycles like Milankovitch cycles (also called Milankovitch oscillations, which describe Earth’s movement around the Sun and its effects on climate) are crucial drivers of ice ages and interglacial periods.
Some events like volcanic eruptions (explosive releases of gases and ash from Earth’s crust) and impacts by celestial bodies (asteroids, comets) also affect climate but typically have one-time or short-term influence, cooling or warming the planet for only a few years.
Human Drivers of Climate Change
When you look at the human drivers, they are fundamentally different from natural causes. Human influence is rapid, relentless, and one-directional—toward warming (IPCC 2023). This is why climate mitigation (actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions) has become urgent.
Infographic suggestion:
A timeline with “Pre-industrial era: slow climate shifts (natural)” and “Post-1850: rapid, mostly warming (human activities)”, including global temperature rise from ~280 ppm CO₂ (pre-industrial) to ~420 ppm CO₂ (2023), peaking in 2024.
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide
The important natural drivers in the industrial era are changes in solar irradiance (solar output), volcanic eruptions, and ocean-atmosphere cycles like the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Meanwhile, humans have emitted more than 100 times as much carbon dioxide annually as volcanoes, and changes in solar output cannot explain recent rapid warming.
There are other important cycles—known as Milankovitch cycles (named after scientist Milutin Milanković), which are periodic changes in the shape of Earth’s orbit and tilt. These cycles operate over tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of years and drive long-term climate patterns such as ice ages. Let’s discuss them in the next article.
