Climate Change vs. Global Warming

We often hear "Climate Change" and "Global Warming" interchangeably by people around us. But what exactly is "Climate Change" and "Global Warming"? Check out this whole article for having a brief idea about both of the words uniquely. This is just a bonus episode for clarifying the misunderstanding people have when they hear "Global Warming" and "Climate Change".

Let's start with the definition of climate. Climate is defined as the long term weather pattern of a region while Global Warming is defined as the rising of average temperatures on a global scale.

The confusion starts from the words - "Weather" & "Climate". So let's resolve that first. The word weather refers to the atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short periods of time - from minutes to hours to days. And the word climate refers to the long-term regional or global average conditions including temperature, humidity and rainfall over the span of years or decades[1].

Global Warming:

Global warming is the heating of the Earth after the time of the industrial revolution. The global average temperature has been rising since the industrial revolution as shown by the statistical representation below:

The industrial revolution did provide us with invaluable technologies we use today but along with it came the increase in the levels of greenhouse gases due to human activities. The globe has been set on fire since the 1950s and the video by NASA shows the changes in the temperatures all around the globe since 1880.

The temperatures are set to rise by up to 2 degrees by the end of the century (maybe more than that if we don't act now). Since the industrial revolution, the global average temperature has risen by 1-degree celsius. This has led to changes in the global ecosystems and weather patterns affecting the "Climate". So by analogy, we can say that global warming is one of the factors responsible for climate change.

You can also check live temperatures as recorded by satellites circling our planet over here.

Climate Change:

Climate change is the long term picture showing us the changes in the weather patterns around the world as a result of global warming. Mainly global warming is the culprit of climate change but many other factors including oceanic patterns, volcanic eruptions, variation in Earth's alignment, changes in the sun's output activity are also responsible for the changes in the climate.

It is a part of a natural cycle but due our activities are responsible for the acceleration of the process as a whole. You see, it took around 140 years for the rise of 1 degree but it is predicted to rise up to 2 degrees within the span of 70-80 years.

In the end, I just wanted to depict the best video I've ever seen on YouTube which shows how devastating we have been to nature and our planet in such a short span of time we've been here. Would like to thank National Geographic for presenting such an eye-opening video!

References:

1. NASA: https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/

2. National Geographic(YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-nEYsyRlYo