recent climate data suggests a global warming trend. the most likley cause could be an increase in which gas?

Greenhouse gases

Explanation:

Greenhouse effect. It is a process in which the thermal radiation emitted by the planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG) and is re-radiated in all directions. As part of this radiation is returned to the surface and the lower atmosphere, this results in an increase in the average surface temperature compared to what would be in the absence of GHG.

Solar radiation at frequencies of visible light passes mostly through the atmosphere to heat the planetary surface and then emits this energy at lower frequencies of infrared thermal radiation. The latter is absorbed by GHGs, which in turn re-radiated much of this energy to the surface and lower atmosphere. This mechanism receives its name due to its analogy to the effect of solar radiation that passes through a glass and heats a greenhouse, but the way it traps heat is fundamentally different from how a greenhouse works by reducing air currents, isolating the hot air inside the room and with it the heat is not lost by convection.

The so-called greenhouse gases or greenhouse gases, responsible for the described effect, are:

Water vapor (H2O)

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Methane (CH4)

Nitrogen oxide (N2O)

Ozone (O3)

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC)

Although all of them (except CFCs) are natural, while they already existed in the atmosphere before the appearance of man, since the Industrial Revolution and mainly due to the intensive use of fossil fuels in industrial activities and transport, they have produced significant increases in the amounts of nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, with the aggravating factor that other human activities, such as deforestation, have limited the regenerative capacity of the atmosphere to eliminate carbon dioxide, the main responsible of the greenhouse effect.