![September 2020: Another record-setting month for global heat](/sites/default/files/September2020_tempanom_480.png)
September 2020 was the hottest September on record for the globe, continuing a sweltering year.
![Climate.gov tweet chat: Talk with education experts on climate change education](/sites/default/files/forest_thermostat_480_1.png)
Join three education experts to talk about how engaging, empowering and educating others can lead to powerful climate action.
![May 2020: Global temperatures tie for record hottest](/sites/default/files/May_globaltemprank_1895-2020_480.jpg)
May 2020 tied with May 2016 as the warmest May on record for the globe, continuing 2020’s streak of having every single month either be the warmest or second-warmest month on record
![Nature’s archives: piecing together 12,000 years of Earth’s climate story](/sites/default/files/Holocene_Paleo_temperature_records_480x320Rotator.png)
The most comprehensive database ever assembled of paleoclimate proxies that tell scientists about temperatures since the last ice age ended around 12,000 years ago has been released to the public.
![Are there positive benefits from global warming?](/sites/default/files/jv_virta_msv_nordica_480.jpg)
Yes, there will probably be some short-term and long-term positive benefits from global warming, but the negative costs and impacts of continued global warming are very likely to far outweigh the positive benefits over the course of this century.
![What harm will global warming cause?](/sites/default/files/tempanomaly_2018_480.png)
Potential effects of global warming include sea level rise, more frequent and more extreme heat waves, intensification of wet and dry regional climate patterns.
![Isn't there a lot of disagreement among climate scientists about global warming?](/sites/default/files/black_carbon_480.jpg)
No. By a large majority, climate scientists agree that average global temperature today is warmer than in pre-industrial times, and that human activity is the primary contributing factor.
![Doesn't carbon dioxide in the atmosphere come from natural sources?](/sites/default/files/douglas_fire_usda_480.jpg)
Yes, there are, but the only new process on Earth that has been identified that can account for the significant tipping of Earth's carbon balance is human activity, including deforestation, biomass burning, cement production, and—especially—fossil-fuel emissions.
![Do humans also exert a cooling influence on Earth's climate?](/sites/default/files/himalaya_aod_480.png)
Yes, human activities exert a cooling influence on Earth in several ways. Overall, this cooling influence is smaller than the warming influence of the heat-trapping gases humans put into the air.
![What evidence exists that Earth is warming and that humans are the main cause?](/sites/default/files/Philip_Jakob%20Loutherbourg_Coalbrookdale_480.jpg)
There is overwhelming scientific evidence that Earth is warming and a preponderance of scientific evidence that human activities are the main cause.