WHAT IS THE DIFFRENCE BETWEEN GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GLOBAL WARMING AND CLIMATE CHANGE?Untitled Part 1

GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming refers to a steady and consistent rise in global temperatures and is therefore only one aspect of the broader phenomenon of climate change. Though the Earth's temperature fluctuates over long periods of time (hundreds to thousands of years), the term global warming most commonly refers to the rising temperatures brought on by human activitiesover the last 100 to 150 years.

This increase is caused by an excess of greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, ozone, and water vapor) in the Earth's atmosphere - mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution. As the level of emissions trapped in the Earth's atmosphere continues to rise, so to do global temperatures.

These gases build up and trap in heat from the sun. If it weren't for those gases, that heat would normally be radiated back out into space. Instead, the sun's energy stays within the Earth's atmosphere, causing the hothouse (greenhouse) effect first observed by Arrhenius back in the 1800s.

Every year over the past decade, CO2 concentrations (the most common greenhouse gas) have been steeply rising and in more than 60 years of observation. Last year, 2018, was also the on record globally, and the 3rd, 2nd, and number 1 hottest years have all occurred within the last decade. Not exactly a coincidence.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change, on the other hand, is a long-term change in the brought on by those same greenhouse gas emissions. While climate changeincludes rising global temperatures, it also comprises of many other impacts those greenhouse gases are having on the planet, which even includes some regions getting colder!

Just as fluctuations in Earth's temperature is natural, a changing climate is a natural aspect of life on Earth. Systems like can cause dramatic fluctuations in weather across large areas of the plant for months or even years. However, the term climate change refers to unexpected, abnormal, and longer-term changes brought on by human activity.

The effects of climate change include a broad range of changes, which, over the last century, have become undeniable. There have been more droughts, floods, and heatwaves, sea levels have risen, biodiversity has been lost, and wildfires and hurricanes have become more intense than ever before. All of which point to a dramatically and rapidly changing climate.

Where global warming refers to one process (rising global temperatures due to increased greenhouse gas production), climate change encapsulates all the symptoms experienced as a result of pollution and greenhouse gas production damaging and altering our environment.

Furthermore, there's a new term making waves and used with increasing frequency lately: Climate Crisis. Spurred partially by the , climate crisis or climate emergency are now being used to reference the urgency with which we must address these challenges. A crisis sounds pretty scary, as does the prospect of increasing environmental disasters, so maybe we haven't been doing ourselves any favors by sugarcoating it all these decades.