Human activities have caused the planet's average surface temperature to rise about 1.1°C since the late 19th century. Most of the warming occurred in the past 35 years.

Globally, the past four years have been the hottest on record, and the 20 warmest have occurred in the past 22 years.

As the global temperatures rises we see an increase in extreme weather events such as heatwaves and droughts. For example, scientists from the UK Met Office who examined the extreme heat wave which struck Europe in the summer of 2003 (which is now known to have killed 70,00 people) concluded that "it is very likely…that human influence has at least doubled the risk of a heatwave exceeding this threshold magnitude." If we carry on burning fossil fuels, such an extreme heatwave will become an average summer for Europe by 2040 and almost all summers will be hotter than that by 2060! As shown in this graph….

Across the globe, calculations show that record breaking extreme temperatures becomes far more probable due to human-induced warming (for example 2010 Syria; 2013 Korea; 2014 California; 2018 UK)

A 2018 study shows how deadly heat waves may limit habitability of one of the world's most populous regions in the world. Concluding that continued burning of fossil fuels would lead to lead to heat extremes that exceeded "the threshold defining what Chinese farmers may tolerate while working outdoors."

Climate change in your lifetime…