¿Qué es el calentamiento global y cómo afecta a nuestro planeta?

This fact sheet defines global warming as the excessive accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, explains its causes rooted in human activity, details its environmental consequences, and outlines global political commitments and individual actions to mitigate the phenomenon.

• Global warming is caused by an excessive accumulation of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the Earth's atmosphere, which trap heat and lead to high temperatures. While the greenhouse effect is a natural process, the increased concentration of these gases in recent decades has created a temperature imbalance. Global warming is identified as one of the factors that trigger climate change by altering weather patterns.
• Human activities are the primary drivers of increased GHG emissions, specifically carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O). Key contributing activities include: the burning of fossil fuels (natural gas, oil, and coal) for energy; agricultural practices, which increase methane through animal digestion, promote deforestation, and release nitrous oxide via fertilizers; and the decomposition of industrial and household waste, which NASA identifies as a source of highly active methane.
• The consequences of global warming include the melting of polar ice caps and rising sea levels that threaten coastal areas, changes in ocean pH levels leading to the loss of marine organisms, and the occurrence of extreme weather events. Additionally, it causes ecosystem imbalances, the extinction of flora and fauna due to habitat modification, and mass migrations of climate refugees.
• Global efforts to combat global warming include the establishment of the IPCC in 1988, the 1992 creation of the UNFCCC, the Convention on Biological Diversity, and the Convention to Combat Desertification. Other key milestones include the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to reduce GHG emissions, the 2009 COP 15 agreement to limit temperature increases to 1.5º, and the 2015 Paris Agreement, which commits countries to reversing the current trend of global warming.

APA

Bleger, M. (2023). ¿Qué es el calentamiento global y cómo afecta a nuestro planeta? Somos El Cambio. https://cambio.com.co/articulo/que-es-el-calentamiento-global-y-como-afecta-a-nuestro-planeta/

Chicago

Bleger, Milagros. ¿Qué es el calentamiento global y cómo afecta a nuestro planeta? Somos El Cambio, 2023. https://cambio.com.co/articulo/que-es-el-calentamiento-global-y-como-afecta-a-nuestro-planeta/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bleger |first1=Milagros |title=¿Qué es el calentamiento global y cómo afecta a nuestro planeta? |publisher=Somos El Cambio |date=6 January 2023 |url=https://cambio.com.co/articulo/que-es-el-calentamiento-global-y-como-afecta-a-nuestro-planeta/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bleger2023calentamiento, author = {Bleger, Milagros}, title = {{¿Qué es el calentamiento global y cómo afecta a nuestro planeta?}}, institution = {Somos El Cambio}, year = {2023}, month = jan, url = {https://cambio.com.co/articulo/que-es-el-calentamiento-global-y-como-afecta-a-nuestro-planeta/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }