What is the Difference between Global Warming and Climate Change?

Climate Change and Global Warming

Weather refers to the current condition of the atmosphere and would change over a brief period of time, hours to a week. It can be measured by observing the change in temperature, speed, and direction of the wind, and so on.

Climate, on the other hand, is the general state of the atmosphere over an extended period of time. Climate is influenced by the ocean, landforms, and the rate of melting of ice at the poles of the earth. With these factors climate forms climate systems in various parts of the world.

It is important to note the differences of weather and climate to better understand the issue of climate change.

Climate Change is the measurable change in the characteristics of different climate systems that can last for decades or even longer. This can be caused by natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, changes in the amount of sunlight hitting an area or the changes in the climate system in a country. It can also be man-induced causes like the widespread use of chemicals that breaks down and deplete the ozone layer. Modern day mass production of livestock has also been pointed at as another contributor of greenhouse gases.

People often use global warming and climate change interchangeably, but these terms are different from each other. Global warming is the increase in the overall global temperature. Some believe that it may have started the same time as the start of the first industrial revolution (1850 – 1900) due to increase in manufacturing and industrial activities such as burning oil and coal that caused rising levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. Carbon has an effect of binding with other gases in the atmosphere and also blocking outgoing heat, it became one of the reasons that heat from sunlight lingers longer inside our atmosphere. It is worsened by the melting of the polar ice caps, carbon gases that are trapped in the ice caps are slowly being released into the atmosphere making the earth heat up and melting the ice in the pole, it has become a horrible cycle of global warming.

Climate change is not just about rising or falling global temperatures. It also refers to extreme changes in climate and weather systems such as the increase and intensity of typhoons hitting countries, abnormal summer temperatures or the gradual rise of water levels in the coasts in countries adjacent to the ocean. Global warming is just one aspect of climate change that people must understand and act on because these issues affect everyone in our society.

References

• “What is the difference between weather and climate?”, United States National Ocean Services website, https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/weather_climate.html
• “Overview: Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change”, NASA Climate Change website, https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/
• “Climate Change”, Philippine Department of Health website, https://www.doh.gov.ph/climate-change