climate change

climate change

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors such asbiotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions. Certain human activities have also been identified as significant causes of recent climate change, often referred to as "global warming".^[1]

Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record -- extending deep into the Earth's past -- has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from boreholetemperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on physics, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.