Global warming controversy
![Global mean land-ocean temperature changes from 1880, relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The black line is the annual mean and the red line is the 5-year running mean. Source: NASA GISS.The map shows the 10-year average (2000–2009) global mean temperature anomaly relative to the 1951–1980 mean. The most extreme warming was in the Arctic. Source: NASA Earth Observatory[1]Fossil fuel related CO2 emissions compared to five of the IPCC's](/uploads/202501/02/Global_Temperature_Anomaly.svg2823.png)
The global warming controversy concerns the public debate over whether global warming is occurring, how much has occurred in modern times, what has caused it, what its effects will be, whether any action should be taken to curb it, and if so what that action should be. In the scientific literature, there is a strong consensus that global surface temperatures have increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. No scientific body of national or international standing disagrees with this view, though a few organizations with members in extractive industries hold non-committal positions. Disputes over the key scientific facts of global warming are more prevalent in the popular media than in the scientific literature, where such issues are treated as resolved, and more prevalent in the United States than globally.