ATTRIBUTION SCIENCE

Let me take the above term word by word to explain it, and thereby facilitate the dilation of the topic.

What then does attribution science mean, taking the first word attribution first? Attribution to my mind means finding the cause/origin. Science in a simplistic definition means study through examination and observation. So from the two definitions attribution science means the study of the cause or origin of a result or outcome. The term attribution science has been coined out of a perspective. The perspective is climate change. So within the framework of the perspective, the substance of the phrase is then the study of the cause or origin of climate change.

But before we move forward let me give you some definitions of climate change, more so as it relates to global warming, its interchangeability or distinction thereof. Keep your focus, and remember that we want to know for sure what attribution science is. The definitions are from two top climate change global authorities so as to lend authoritative parameters to this topic. The two top climate change authorities are National Aeronautics and Space Authority and United States of America Environmental Protection Agency. The definitions come in that order as follows:  

Global warming refers to the upward temperature trend across the entire Earth since the early 20th century, and most notably since the late 1970s, due to the increase in fossil fuel emissions since the industrial revolution. Worldwide since 1880, the average surface temperature has gone up by about 0.8 °C (1.4 °F), relative to the mid-20th-century baseline (of 1951-1980).

Climate change refers to a broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s atmosphere. These phenomena include the increased temperature trends described by global warming, but also encompass changes such as sea level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flower/plant blooming; and extreme weather events.

NASA (https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming/)

The term climate change is sometimes used interchangeably with the term global warming. However, the terms do not refer entirely to the same thing.

Global warming refers to the recent and ongoing rise in global average temperature near Earth's surface. It is caused mostly by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Global warming is causing climate patterns to change. However, global warming itself represents only one aspect of climate change.

Climate change refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other words, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among others, that occur over several decades or longer. Climate change can occur at the global, continental, regional, and local levels. Climate change may refer to natural changes in climate, or changes caused by human activities.

USA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (https://19january2017snapshot.epa.gov/climate-change-science/overview-climate-change-science_.html)

The foregoing definitions tell me that to a point global warming and climate change are interchangeable.  However, climate change extends beyond global warming, and is the bigger of the two.

Now back to the substantive issue of the cause of climate change. Now we know, at least from the definitions, that climate change starts with global warming which is fuelled by greenhouse gases. That opens the way for us to find out how the greenhouse gases are generated to cause global warming, for that matter climate change.

 Attribution Science shows that there are two main ways by which greenhouse gases cause global warming, for that matter climate change. The two ways are human and natural. The human ways are due to the activities of human beings here on planet Earth. The natural ways are caused by nature.

Some examples of human-induced global warming are:

Biomass burning

Coal burning

Transportation fuel

Fertilizer use

Some examples of nature-induced temperature increase are:

Climate cycles

Volcanic activities

Solar activities

Carbon cycle

As a result of many diligent studies and comparison of notes over a period of time, attribution science has developed a common position that human activities, some of which have been indicated, are the causes of global warming, and for that matter climate change. Attribution Science says even though natural activities do add to the warming surface temperature of the Earth, the increase is minimal and does not by themselves account for the rate and measure of life-threatening global mean temperature planet Earth is experiencing now.