Climate Change

The average of weather patterns over a longer period of time (usually 30 or more years). 

• weather

• global warming

• climate

• emissions

Refers to greenhouse gases released into the air that are produced by numerous activities, including burning fossil fuels, industrial agriculture, and melting permafrost, to name a few.

• ozone layer

• emissions

• fossil fuels

• climate change

Non-renewable energy, formed from the remains of living organisms that were buried millions of years ago. Burning coal and oil to produce energy is where the majority of greenhouse gases originate.

• carbon dioxide

• methane

• fossil fuels

• emissions

An increase in the Earth’s average surface temperature from human-made greenhouse gas emissions.

• global warming

• weather

• climate

• greenhouse gas

In the earth's stratosphere at an altitude of about 6.2 miles (10 km), contains a high concentration of oxygen molecules which absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth from the sun.

• greenhouse gas

• methane

• carbon dioxide

• ozone layer

A chemical compound found in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other human-made gases. They allow much of the solar radiation to enter the atmosphere, where the energy strikes the Earth and warms the surface. Some of this energy is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation. A portion of this outgoing radiation bounces back and is trapped in the atmosphere in the form of heat.

• ozone layer

• climate change

• carbon dioxide

• greenhouse gas

The atmospheric conditions in the short term, including changes in temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness, brightness, wind, and visibility.

• climate

• weather

• global warming

• climate change

A chemical compound that’s the main component of natural gas. It is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and accounts for about 10 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions (using 2013 figures), second only to carbon dioxide.

• ozone layer

• greenhouse gas

• methane

• carbon dioxide

Refers to the long-term changes in the Earth’s climate, or a region on Earth, and includes more than just the average surface temperature. For example, variations in the amount of snow, sea levels, and sea ice can all be consequences.

 

• climate change

• weather

• global warming

• climate

This chemical compound is the primary greenhouse gas and driver of climate change. It’s an integral part of life cycles on earth, produced through animal respiration (including human respiration) and absorbed by plants to fuel their growth, to name just two ways.

 

• carbon dioxide

• methane

• greenhouse gas

• ozone layer