Global warming temperature annual changes

Global warming is a process in which the earth heats up by the temperature rising. It happens when greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature.

Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

The rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia. And the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.