What is global warming? Name the gas which is responsible for causing global warming?

Global warming refers to the long-term increase in Earth's average surface temperature due to human activities that increase atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping gases. Since the late 19th century, global average temperatures have risen by approximately 1.1°C, with accelerating warming in recent decades. This phenomenon disrupts climate patterns worldwide, causing melting polar ice caps and glaciers, rising sea levels, more frequent and intense heatwaves, altered precipitation patterns, and increased extreme weather events like hurricanes, droughts, and floods. Global warming represents the most significant environmental challenge facing humanity, threatening ecosystems, agriculture, water resources, and coastal communities while driving species extinctions and habitat loss.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the primary greenhouse gas responsible for causing global warming, accounting for approximately 75% of human-caused warming effects. CO₂ is released into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas) for energy, transportation, and industry, as well as through deforestation, which both releases stored carbon and eliminates trees that absorb CO₂. Once released, carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years, continuously trapping heat radiated from Earth's surface—this greenhouse effect keeps our planet warm enough to sustain life, but excessive CO₂ concentrations intensify this effect, causing dangerous overheating. Other significant greenhouse gases include methane (from agriculture and fossil fuels), nitrous oxide (from fertilizers), and fluorinated gases (from industrial processes), but CO₂ dominates due to the massive quantities released and its atmospheric persistence. Reducing global warming requires dramatically cutting CO₂ emissions through renewable energy adoption, energy efficiency improvements, forest conservation, and sustainable land-use practices.