Climate change

Climate change is a long-term shift in average weather patterns or their variability, lasting decades or longer. It can result from natural processes or human activities.

Greenhouse effect: The warming that occurs when atmospheric gases absorb and re-emit infrared radiation from Earth’s surface. Rising concentrations of heat-trapping gases strengthen this process.
Global temperature record: A reconstruction of changes in Earth’s average surface temperature over time. It documents the rise in global mean temperature since the late nineteenth century.
Svante Arrhenius: A Swedish physical chemist who calculated how changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide could alter Earth’s temperature. His 1896 calculations anticipated warming from industrial carbon dioxide emissions.
Climate mitigation: Actions that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Mitigation limits the scale of future climate change by addressing its causes.
Climate variability: Natural fluctuations in climate conditions across seasons, years, or longer periods, distinct from a persistent shift in averages. It can mask or amplify long-term climate trends over shorter intervals.
Earth's energy budget: The balance between solar energy absorbed by Earth and energy radiated back to space. Climate shifts when this planetary energy balance changes.
Sea-level rise: An increase in the average height of the ocean surface relative to land. Thermal expansion and melting land ice raise sea levels as the planet warms.
Keeling Curve: The continuous record of atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa since 1958. Its rising trend showed that human emissions were accumulating in the atmosphere.
Climate adaptation: Adjustments to human or natural systems that reduce harm from actual or expected climate impacts. Adaptation manages risks that occur despite efforts to cut emissions.
Weather: The short-term state of the atmosphere at a particular place and time. A cold day is weather; climate change concerns persistent shifts in statistical patterns.

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