Environment & Ecology
Climate change
Human-caused changes to climate on Earth
Overview
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. In a broader sense, climate change also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The modern-day rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices release greenhouse gases. These gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight, warming the lower atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere now has roughly 50% more carbon dioxide, the main gas driving global warming, than it did at the end of the pre-industrial era, reaching levels not seen for millions of years.
Source: Wikipedia — Climate change (CC BY-SA)
Key concepts
How Climate change connects to the ideas, people and events around it.
Global surface temperature (GST) is the average temperature of Earth's surface at a given time. It is a combination of sea surface temperature and the near-surface air temperature over land, weighted by their respective areas.
Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. Climate is the statistical characterization of the climate system.
Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more.
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in a region, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years.
There is scientific consensus that the Earth has been consistently warming since the start of the Industrial Revolution, that the rate of recent warming is largely unprecedented, and that this warming is mainly the result of a rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) caused by human activities.
A fossil fuel is a flammable carbon compound- or hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the buried remains of prehistoric organisms, a process that occurs within geological formations.
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as layers called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a natural resource that appears as a yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting primarily of hydrocarbons.
Revise Climate change
Flashcards and a quick quiz, built from this map.
Questions about Climate change
What is Climate change?
Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. In a broader sense, climate change also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The modern-day rise in global temperatures is driven by human activities, especially fossil fuel burning since the Industrial Revolution.
What are the key concepts related to Climate change?
The main concepts connected to Climate change include Global surface temperature, Climate system, Climate variability and change, Climate, Scientific consensus on climate change, Fossil fuel, Coal, Petroleum. Each is linked on the map above with its own summary.
Which exams cover Climate change?
Climate change is part of Environment & Ecology, which appears in the syllabus of UPSC CSE, UPSC CAPF, SSC CGL, SSC CHSL, SSC MTS, SSC GD and 43 more exams.