Later, scientists began tracking surface temperatures with satellites and looking for clues about climate change in geologic records. We know this is true thanks to an overwhelming body of evidence that begins with temperature measurements taken at weather stations and on ships starting in the mid-1800s. Ever since, human activities have been heating the planet. However, during the Industrial Revolution, people started burning coal and other fossil fuels to power factories, smelters and steam engines, which added more greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is important: It’s why a planet so far from the sun has liquid water and life! These gases make up just a small fraction of the atmosphere but exert outsized control on Earth’s climate by trapping some of the planet’s heat before it escapes into space. For more than a century, scientists have understood the basic physics behind why greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide cause warming.
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