by Javed baloch
images source: Unsplash
Climate Change and Global Warming are not exactly the same thing. Here are the key differences: Global warming is the rise in Earth’s average temperature due to greenhouse gases. Climate change includes global warming and other long-term changes like altered rainfall, wind patterns, and melting ice.
Human activities, mainly burning fossil fuels, drive global warming by adding heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons and water vapor are greenhouse gases.
Earth has experienced natural climate changes, like ice ages, for millions of years. However, today’s warming is faster and human-caused. Since Industrial Revolution, average global temperatures are on rise.
“Global warming” became widely used in the 1970s when scientists agreed warming would dominate. Later, “climate change” became common as scientists recognized broader impacts beyond temperature rise.
Global warming causes rising sea levels, shrinking glaciers, and extreme weather, which impact water resources, agriculture, and coastal communities. It changes climate patterns of world ecosystems.
"Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth's surface observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth's atmosphere." NASA Science
"Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas." United Nations
"Global warming refers only to the Earth’s rising surface temperature, while climate change includes warming and the “side effects” of warming—like melting glaciers, heavier rainstorms, or more frequent drought. Said another way, global warming is one symptom of the much larger problem of human-caused climate change." NOAA Climate.gov
"“Global warming” refers to the rise in global temperatures due mainly to the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. “Climate change” refers to the increasing changes in the measures of climate over a long period of time – including precipitation, temperature, and wind patterns." U.S. Geological Survey