Global Warming: As already pointed out under Climate Change, global warming precedes and fuels climate change, which is thus its logical and worrisome consequence. First the world's average temperature(s) begin to rise and keep on rising, and then local and regional climate systems begin to change in manifest and quantifiable ways.
Global warming is itself the direct effect of greenhouse gas emissions -- particularly the emission of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These emissions are caused by modern industrial and agricultural production and related human activity, which trace back historically to the (English) Industrial Revolution of the 19th century. This simmering climate change has been noticed increasingly by experts since the 1950s. The emissions have mostly occurred in the 'industrialized' parts of the world, but endanger the entire planet.
One of the greatest challenges for humanity today is how to reverse the on-going process of global warming. Certainly, that is not an end in itself. The underlying and hugely consequential purpose is to arrest and even reverse the trends in climate change that we already see. We need to do so in order to save ourselves, as only we can, from its dire consequences. Evidence of these consequences continue to pile up (see CONCEPT: Climate Change).
