Global Warming Versus Climate Change

In the past decades, scientists and the media have constantly talked about global warming and that the atmosphere is getting warmer and warmer each year. However, the term ‘global warming’ is now less common in the media. Instead ‘climate change’ is more commonly used. Why is that?

The Earth’s atmosphere is a complex system, and it is balanced overall. A small change in it can affect the environment and the entire ecosystem. In the past 100 years, the atmosphere has become one degree Celsius warmer, but not all people see this warming. Some people see just the opposite. In some areas of the world, the winters have become longer and colder. This is one of the reasons why we use the term ‘climate change’ today.

Another reason is that it isn’t just the temperatures that change. A lot can happen when the climate in an area changes very quickly. Forests may die in just a decade, lakes and other water reservoirs may dry up, and people may lose their farms and decide to move because of food shortages. All of these changes can affect the climate in the area even more. Scientists predict that a lot of the effects of climate change will come in the next decades.