Earth In Our Hands

What is climate change?

You've probably heard about climate change, but what is it, really? The google definition of climate change is "a change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels." In simpler terms, climate change is whenever there is a major change in the conditions in a particular area. Recently, this term has come to mean the changes in our climate, specifically in the last few centuries due to emissions by humans.

You've also probably heard of global warming. What's the difference? Global means the entire earth, and warming means an increase in temperature, so global warming literally means an increase in temperature across the entire earth. Global warming and climate change can be the same thing, but not always. Climate change is a broader category, encompassing every change, not just the rise in temperature, but they have come to be interchangeable when used this way.

Both global warming and climate change have happened normally in the past, but they have also both significantly increased in the last century. Scientists have evidence that this is because of human activity, not just the natural causes of climate change. This is something we need to solve as soon as possible before it becomes more of a disaster.