--- title: Climate Change: Research Shows When Global Warming Began description: Human-caused global warming began as early as the mid-nineteenth century, decades before previously understood, according to new research canonical: https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-08-24T17:00:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:07:42.638Z article:section: Science og:title: Humans Have Caused Global Warming for Longer Than We Thought og:description: Human-caused global warming began as early as the mid-nineteenth century, decades before previously understood, according to new research og:url: https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf520e765c011626a/6988a37a656a3f4f6cbccdb1/pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Pollution og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Humans Have Caused Global Warming for Longer Than We Thought twitter:description: Human-caused global warming began as early as the mid-nineteenth century, decades before previously understood, according to new research twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf520e765c011626a/6988a37a656a3f4f6cbccdb1/pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Humans Have Caused Global Warming for Longer Than We Thought > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 24, 2016 5:00 PM UTC  Arial view of German industrial area. Arial view of German industrial area. Dirk Meister—Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 24, 2016 5:00 PM UTC People have been contributing to global warming since the mid-nineteenth century, decades before scientists previously estimated, according to new [research](http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature19082) published in the journal _Nature._ The study questions the perception of climate change as primarily a 20th century phenomenon and provides new evidence of how quickly the Earth’s atmosphere responds to increased levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Even relatively low levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the first decades of the Industrial Revolution contributed to a temperature increase, according to the research. “It was one of those moments where science really surprised us,” says study author Nerilie Abram of the Australian National University. “But the results were clear. The climate warming we are witnessing today started about 180 years ago.” **Read More:** [July Was the Single Warmest Month Ever Recorded](http://time.com/4453038/heat-wave-july-temperature/) Previous research has relied largely on land temperature records from the Northern Hemisphere to evaluate warming trends. But that’s not where early man-made global warming struck first, according to the new study. Researchers looked at historic data derived from natural sources like coral, tree rings and ice to determine that the first “sustained” and “significant” temperature rise actually occurred in tropical oceans and the Arctic during the 1830s. That’s several decades before most modern temperature data sets began. Researchers attribute the difference in temperature rise between different geographic locations across the globe to a variety of climate factors including ocean circulation. That, at least in part, explains why temperatures in the Arctic have been rising much faster than anywhere else on the globe—[about 16°C (29°F) this winter](http://time.com/4261719/february-heat-records-climate-change/)—while temperature rise in Antartica has been relatively slow. The work should encourage others studying global warming to incorporate earlier data into their models and research to gain a better understanding of how the world warms, the scientists behind the study say. **Read More:** [These Photos Show How Hard Climate Change Has Hit Greenland](http://time.com/4447252/greenland-ice-climate-change/) Of course, the contribution of humans to global warming in the 19th century pales compared to people’s role today. Temperature rise remained within the area of natural variability until the 1930s, yet in [February of this year](http://time.com/4261719/february-heat-records-climate-change/), the most unusually hot month ever recorded, temperatures rose 1.2°C (2.2°F) higher than the global average during the 20th century. That’s close to the [2°C (3.6°F) threshold](http://time.com/4146764/paris-agreement-climate-cop-21/) held up by scientists as the level where humans will begin to experience the worst effects of temperature rise. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/"},"headline":"Humans Have Caused Global Warming for Longer Than We Thought","datePublished":"2016-08-24T17:00:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:07:42.638Z","description":"Global warming isn't just a 20th and 21st century phenomenon","url":"https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/","keywords":["climate change"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf520e765c011626a/6988a37a656a3f4f6cbccdb1/pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf520e765c011626a/6988a37a656a3f4f6cbccdb1/pollution.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pollution","caption":"Arial view of German industrial area.","creditText":"Dirk Meister—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4461719/global-warming-climate-change-humans/","name":"Humans Have Caused Global Warming for Longer Than We Thought"}}]}] ```