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Contemporary climate change includes both global warming and its impacts on Earth's weather patterns. There have been previous periods of climate change, but the current changes are distinctly more rapid and not due to natural causes.[2] Instead, they are caused by the emission of greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. Burning fossil fuels for energy use creates most of these emissions. Agriculture, steelmaking, cement production, and forest loss are additional sources.[3] Greenhouse gases are transparent to sunlight, allowing it through to heat the Earth's surface. When the Earth emits that heat as infrared radiation the gases absorb it, trapping the heat near the Earth's surface. As the planet heats up it causes changes like the loss of sunlight-reflecting snow cover, amplifying global warming.[4]

On land, temperatures have risen about twice as fast as the global average. Deserts are expanding, while heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common.[5] According to research, temperatures during the most recent decade (2011-2020) exceed those of the most recent multi-century warm period, around 6,500 years ago .Increased warming in the Arctic has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss[6], which is the main cause for the rapid rise in sea levels that are already irreversible for centuries to millennia. The global mean sea level rose faster since 1900, than over any preceding century in at least the last 3,000 years. Higher temperatures are also causing more intense storms and other weather extremes.[7] Rapid environmental change in mountains, coral reefs, and the Arctic is forcing many species to relocate or become extinct.[8] Climate change threatens people with food and water scarcity, increased flooding, extreme heat, more disease, and economic loss. Human migration and conflict can be a result.[9] The World Health Organization calls climate change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century.[10] Even if efforts to minimise future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include sea level rise, and warmer, more acidic oceans.[11]

Terminology

Climate change is driven by rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere. This strengthens the greenhouse effect which traps heat in Earth's climate system.[19] Before the 1980s, it was unclear whether increased greenhouse gasses would dominate aerosol-induced cooling. Scientists then often used the term inadvertent climate modification to refer to the human impact on the climate. In the 1980s, the terms global warming and climate change were popularised. The former refers only to increased surface warming, the latter describes the full effect of greenhouse gases on the climate.[20] Global warming became the most popular term after NASA climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the U.S. Senate.[21] In the 2000s, the term climate change increased in popularity.[22] Global warming usually refers to human-induced warming of the Earth system, whereas climate change can refer to natural or anthropogenic change.[23] The two terms are often used interchangeably.[24]

Various scientists, politicians and media figures have adopted the terms climate crisis or climate emergency to talk about climate change, and global heating instead of global warming.[25] The policy editor-in-chief of The Guardian said they included this language in their editorial guidelines "to ensure that we are being scientifically precise, while also communicating clearly with readers on this very important issue".[26] In 2019, Oxford Languages chose climate emergency as its word of the year, defining it as "a situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it".[27][28]