Climate change is caused by a combination of natural and human factors. Natural factors that can cause climate change include volcanic eruptions, changes in the Earths orbit, and shifts in the Earths crust. However, the primary cause of climate change is human activity and the release of greenhouse gases. The burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and causes global warming. Other human activities that contribute to climate change include deforestation, which releases carbon stored in trees into the atmosphere, and livestock farming, which produces large amounts of methane. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that human influence is the principal driver of many changes observed across the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere, and biosphere. While natural causes can contribute to climate change, the evidence shows that they are not the primary cause.