Climate change

The term climate change is used to refer to changes in the Earth's global climate or regional climates. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere - or average weather - over any time scale from decades to millions of years. These changes can come from internal processes, be driven by external forces or, most recently, be caused by human activities.

Related Topics:
Earth - Climate - Human

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In recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, the term "climate change" is often used to refer only to the ongoing changes in modern climate, including the average rise in surface temperature known as global warming. In some cases, the term is also used with a presumption of human causation, including in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The UNFCCC uses "climate variability" for non-human caused variationshttp://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/518.htm.

Related Topics:
Environment - Temperature - Global warming - United Nations - Framework Convention on Climate Change

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For information on temperature measurements over various periods, and the data sources available, see temperature record. For attribution of climate change over the past century, see attribution of recent climate change.

Related Topics:
Temperature record - Attribution of recent climate change

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