A Beginner’s Guide to Climate Change

We are inundated with so much language surrounding the doom and gloom of the world we currently live in. It’s filled with jargon and buzzwords, some of which only make the topic more confusing. In this post, I will break down climate change in a “for beginners” context.

What is climate change?

Before answering the question, it’s important to explain the difference between climate and weather. It’s common to use these terms interchangeably, but they are referring to two very different things!

One way to describe these differences is this: climate is what you expect, or what you have in your closet. Weather is what you get, or what outfit you decide to wear on a given day. To put it another way, weather is talking about a temporary point of time, like what’s happening from one day to the next (or even from one hour to the next!). Climate is looking at things over the long term. 

Climate scientists often track weather patterns over periods of 30 years or more. This gives a better picture of how they are changing or not. While the weather varies, and frequently, it doesn’t offer enough data to provide sound evidence of significant change. But if we are looking at data of at least 30 years, it’s easier to spot patterns in contrast to rare occurrences. 

So, back to the question - what is climate change?

If we use what we’ve just learned about the difference between climate and weather, we’ve already partly answered this question. Climate is the collection of weather over periods of at least 30 years. At a very foundational level, climate change is the observed extremes in weather patterns. More specifically, it’s the unpredictability from one extreme to the next, and the speed those changes take place. 

It is important to note that there are two types of climate change. There is a naturally occurring form of climate change. We often described this using ice ages and warming periods, but it isn't quite that simplistic. The other type of climate change is what we are more often than not discussing: human-induced climate change. This results from our behaviours, and makes a great segue to our next definition - greenhouse gases!

When we talk about greenhouse gases, or GHGs, we are referring to gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. We call it the greenhouse effect, as it mimics a greenhouse that we use for agricultural purposes.

Each day, the sun radiates heat down to the surface of the Earth. Without the greenhouse effect, some of this heat is released into the air at night. This cools things down. But, because greenhouse gases trap this heat, the Earth isn’t able to cool off at night like it would have in the past. Sadly, humans are directly responsible for this.

What’s the difference between global warming and climate change?

Like weather and climate, we’re also great at using the terms climate change and global warming interchangeably. We know climate change is the observed, yet unpredictable weather patterns over a period of time (30 years or more). So, let’s focus on global warming for a moment!

Global warming refers to the increase in global temperatures because of greenhouse gases. This means, the higher the concentrations of C02 in the atmosphere, the warmer the planet becomes.

In contrast, climate change is more than just a warming planet. It includes both natural and human-induced patterns, and the consequences of this. As a result, we are likely to observe more frequent and intense storms, sea level rise, loss of biodiversity, etc.

What’s the difference between a climate crisis and a climate emergency?

Two other terms that we use a lot are climate crisis and climate emergency. Both terms refer to the severity of the problem. 

What is adaptation and mitigation?

These next two terms get tossed around a lot, especially when we’re talking about how we will address climate change. 

Climate change mitigation looks at the size of the problem. Actions within this area of climate response are specific to the reduction of greenhouse gases. 

Climate change adaptation looks beyond the carbon footprint. It focuses on the vulnerability to the problem. In other words, adaptation is about how to prepare for life in a climate changed world. 

Of course, there are overlapping benefits between the two. But to keep it simple: mitigation = GHGs; adaptation = learning to live with climate change. Currently, most climate action falls under mitigation. This is unfortunate, as we should be using both adaptation and mitigation efforts.

So that's climate change in a nutshell! I hope this was helpful in explaining what climate change is and some of the language we use when talking about it.