The connection between the growth of anthropogenic carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the current climate warming

Abstract

Variations in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and the average global near-surface air temperature are compared over the last 50-year period. It turns out that, within the interannual time scales, the carbon dioxide concentration variations generally lagged behind the corresponding temperature variations. However, within time scales of more than 40 years in the 1980s–1990s, when the growth of CO₂ and temperature accelerated, carbon dioxide was in the lead. This fact indicates that atmospheric pollution actually could have begun to affect the climate at that time.