What is Climate Change?

Climate change is a much talked about subject that is never far from the news, but what is climate change? On this page we are going to provide you with a climate change definition, discuss whether climate change is real and answer some burning questions on the topic such as 'what is global climate change?' and also 'what causes climate change?'.

We are also going to provide you with some information on the impacts and effects of climate change as well as some interesting climate change facts. With the whole climate change and global warming subjects being something that ignites much debate and opinion from anyone that is interested, or even concerned, it is fair to say that we could discuss them all day long. However, this page is designed to answer the basic questions in as simple a manner as possible in order to give you a sound understanding by not over complicating things.

What is climate change? - Climate change definition

First of all it makes sense to answer the main question and that is 'what is climate change?' and provide you with a climate change definition. Climate change is a phrase that is essentially self explanatory, it is the change in the climate of a country, region, or the world over. The main debate that goes on is whether or not there have been, and continue to be, changes in the earth's climate. The bigger questions and cause for argument are the causes of climate change which we will cover later on down the page. The climate change in question is that temperatures are increasing and there are going to be severe problems for the world and it's inhabitants if this continues to be the case, some we have already began to see through extreme weather and the rise in sea levels.

In current times climate change is a very real issue for the global environment and if global temperatures continue to increase it can potentially become more serious for generations to come. Although the main argument is that climate change would occur with or without human activity, the point is that the human contribution has caused the global climate to change at an enhanced rate.

A quick and simple definition of climate change is :

Climate change is a change of climate that is believed to be caused either directly or indirectly by the activity of the human race. This activity changes how the atmosphere is made up and increases the natural change in climate that would occur anyway.

We hope that this has helped you understand the answer to the question 'what is climate change?', now that we have given you a climate change definition we are going to go on to talk about whether or not climate chance is real.

Is climate change real?

Now that we have provided you with a definition of climate change and explained what climate change is, we are going to answer the natural question that comes about and that is 'is climate change real?'. This question is something that can be answered with statistics and the statistics prove that yes climate change is very real. In the USA the average temperature has risen by over 2 degrees fahrenheit over the last 50 years, this rise continues and it is not just in the USA. If you switch on the news or check out global warming and climate change articles all over the internet you will see that there are droughts and extreme weather happening all over the world, and these are largely down to ongoing climate change. The graph below shows average global temperatures and is proof that climate change is real.

Graph from - http://www.ucar.edu

If that graph does not show you the answer to the question 'is climate change real?', I don't know what will!

What is global climate change?

In a nutshell global climate change is the change in the temperature over time across the whole world as an average. Of course some regions are hotter than others and some colder, but when you are talking about global climate change you are referring to the world as a whole and not how one specific region has been effected.

What causes climate change?

So what causes climate change? This is probably the most important question on the whole page and here are going to tell you what the main causes of climate change are.

The greenhouse effect - The greenhouse is responsible for global warming which is essentially climate change as it is an increase in the earth's temperatures over time. For a more thorough explanation as to what the greenhouse effect is please see our dedicated page. In short there are more greenhouse gases being released into the earth's atmosphere due to human activity and this is having an enhanced effect on climate change and causing global temperatures to rise. This is something that has been happening for some time and also something that will continue to happen in the years to come. Just how dangerous and damaging this can and will be remains to be seen. However, we have already seen many of the consequences of global warming caused by the greenhouse effect, these are explained further in our next section on the impacts and effects of climate change.

Impacts and effects of climate change

Now that you have a better understanding of what climate change is and what actually causes it, we are going to highlight what some of the main impacts and effects of climate change are. Of course with any action there are always some sort of consequences and this is no different in the case of climate change, however as this is something that pretty much the whole human race has contributed to the consequences are going to be that much more serious.

Some of the impacts of climate change are more apparent to some people than others, it all depends what part of the world that you live in as some areas bare the brunt of the changes to quite an extreme. All you need to do is turn on the news to see a story about extreme weather across the world and the disturbing results of this, it is no coincidence that this is happening more and more frequently as time goes on. The effects of climate change can be devastating to both the environment and also the human race itself.

Climate change effects:

• Desertification
  Desertification is something that is happening across the world in South America, Asia and Africa and is where the degradation of land occurs due to climate change or human activity.
• Drought
  Due to increased climate levels and extreme weather, several areas of the world are subjected to sudden and extreme drought. This is where there is no rain for prolonged periods of time and the water sources in the area dry up, putting all life at risk.
• Extreme weather
  Tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, flash flooding, these are all examples of extreme weather than happen across the world and are largely down to climate change. Warmer places getting warmer, colder places getting colder and more extreme examples of seasons such as summer droughts and sub zero temperatures in the winter.
• Melting of the polar ice caps
  Studies have shown that polar icecaps are melting and that this is a result of an increase in global climates.
• Sea levels rising
  Due to the increase in global climates the polar icecaps have began to melt and an increased rates which means there is more water in liquid form in the world's oceans, more water results in a rise in sea levels. Some argue that this is something that would happen anyway, however studies have shown that the increase is becoming more prominent in recent times and this has been put down to human activity and the impact that has on global warming. Sea levels rising and effecting coastal areas are causing people to have to move further inland in some countries.
• Ecosystems dieing
  Due to extreme weather and the climate increasing ecosystems can be wiped out due to devastating floods for example. Huge areas of land can change from being full of life into lifeless desert by drought. Species that have been surviving in certain conditions for years are left unable to adapt with sudden and extreme change and die out.
• Agriculture issues
  One of the effects of climate change is that droughts and flooding can effect agriculture and food supple in some areas of the world
• Human impacts
  Extreme weather, flooding and droughts have led to the loss of life in many areas of the world, just look at Japan and even the USA in the past couple of years. Less serious than death but still a major problem is the destruction of homes, and livelihood due to the same factors. People in poorer areas of the world do not have access to any water, let alone fresh water and their crops are dying, they require help from other parts of the world which has an impact on world debt and the economy.
• Insurance costs
  Another impact of climate change and the global damage that it causes, is that it sets insurance costs sky high due to natural damages, flood and storm damage for example.

We hope that this section on the impacts and effects of climate change have been helpful to you. Next up we cover some climate change facts.

Climate change facts

In this next section we are going to provide you with 7 climate change facts. Countless studies on the subject can and will throw up many more so do not take these as the only ones or the main ones on the topic. At the end of the day climate change is something that is strongly backed up by science, facts and figures, so it is a genuine issue in the world today.

• It is no coincidence that globally there have been 10 of the hottest years on record in the last 21 years (1990-2011). The climate of the earth is changing rapidly, at a rate more quickly that records have ever experienced.
• As the graph we have displayed further up the page shows, global average temperatures are have dramatically increased in the past 150 years.
• The 20th century saw sea levels rise by between 10 and 20 cm across the world
• More cars go on the road everyday, more planes take off from airports, amongst many other transport factors causing emissions to be released into the atmosphere contributing to the greenhouse effect. And that is just transport, there are many other industries such as agriculture and energy production that also contribute to the problem.
• In the USA the temperature has risen by 2 deg F over the past 50 years
• By burning fossil fuels for energy we are releasing billions of tons of carbon dioxide and this contributes to climate change
• Global winds have changed in recent years in both the northern and southern hemispheres and this means that weather fronts and patters are less stable. There are many things, most notably the global economy that reply on a stable climate and this change has and will lead to unstable and extreme weather.

We hope that you have found these facts about climate change interesting. We will be adding more to this page and also the whole site on the subject of what causes climate change and what climate change is in the future so please feel free to check back at a later date.

More than what climate change is

There is much more to our website than just what climate change is, so please take the time to look at all of the other useful information that we have. If you are interested in the impacts and effects of climate change and also climate change facts then you may also find our pages on global warming and greenhouse gases intriguing. When talking about what causes climate change we touched on the greenhouse effect being the main contributory factor, we have a page dedicated to this subject so please take a look. We can all play our own small part in reducing global climate change and the impacts that climate change have on the world that we live in, for more information on simple everyday steps that you can take why not look at our page on how to reduce your carbon footprint.