Understanding climate change necessitates a thorough understanding of the distinction between climate and weather. Temperature, wind, and precipitation are all factors that influence weather, which is the state of the atmosphere at any given time in a specific location. It can drastically change in a matter of minutes. Climate, on the other hand, is a long-term average weather pattern in a given area. Climatic change is a significant and sustained shift in an area’s established weather patterns that is often difficult to verify due to the planet’s age.
Continental drift, or the slow movement of tectonic plates, is one cause of climatic change. Glacier advance and retreat are linked to climatic change, especially during ice ages when glaciers take over large areas of the landscape. Wooly mammoths have been discovered frozen in the tundras of Siberia and North America, and their condition is exceptional. Tender, green herbaceous plants have been discovered in the stomachs of these creatures, indicating that they were enjoying spring-like conditions before succumbing to the deep freeze.
Some geologic evidence, such as the discovery of fossilized sea creatures in the inland deserts of North America, suggests that climatic change has been extremely slow and dramatic. Finding frozen mammoths, on the other hand, suggests that climatic change can be sudden and unexpected. Climate change, according to some scientists, is a cyclical and natural process that is beyond human control.
Global warming is a contentious issue that connects human energy demands in the post-industrial era to climatic change and, more specifically, a warming planet. According to this theory, the planet is becoming warmer as a result of human carbon emissions. Carbon dioxide gas is released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned. The greenhouse effect is the result of these gases creating a thick, blanket-like wrapping around the planet.
The greenhouse effect prevents light and heat from properly bouncing off the Earth’s surface. The sun’s energy passes through the carbon blanket to reach the Earth’s surface, but it takes longer for the sun’s rays to reflect back. As a result, this energy and heat cannot escape the carbon blanket, and it remains trapped in the atmosphere, warming the planet’s climate.