Man-made global warming is responsible for about 75% of all hot-temperature extremes worldwide in the past 100 years, according to a study published Monday in the British journal Nature Climate Change .
It is also responsible for about 18% of heavy rainfall, the study said.
Even worse, climate change will cause higher percentages of extreme weather in future decades. For example, by the middle of this century, if temperatures continue to increase, about 95% of all heat waves — and about 40% of precipitation extremes — will be due to human influence.
Man-made climate change is caused by the burning of fossil fuels such as gas, coal and oil, which release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, warming the globe to levels that cannot be explained by natural variability.
The study's scientists used 25 climate computer models to test their theories. Lead author Erich Fischer, a climate scientist at ETH Zurich , a Swiss university, said the models "agree remarkably well on the change in heavy rainfall and hot extremes at the global scale."
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