by Frank Sinbeans

Created on: March 03, 2010

Global warming - when the overall temperature of the Earth gradually rises - is a form of global climate change. The same can be said of global warming's opposing counterpart, global cooling. Both of these global climate change phenomena have occurred repeatedly throughout geological history, as Earth has repeatedly warmed and cooled, moving from ice-ages to sauna-like conditions. Right now, for instance, we're in an interglacial period, which means that one day, due to complex forces associated with the locations of Earth's land masses, air and water currents, volcanic activity, and the composition of the air (including the presence of the so-called "greenhouse gases") we're going to enter another ice age, similar to that in which the mammoth, giant sloth, and saber-tooth cat lived. (Although, those animals obviously will not be coming back to life just because Earth gets cold again!)

So what exactly is climate change? Climate is long-term, widespread patterns of weather. For example, the climate in the Seattle Washington area is notorious for its rain - that is its climate. If, over the long-term, rainfall gradually decreased, this could potentially signify a change in the Seattle area's climate. It's worth noting, though, that short-term changes in weather patterns, or weather-related anomalies, do not make for a change in climate. Climate change requires, not just that weather is different, but that norms of weather, norms of temperature, norms of rainfall, etc, change permanently.

Global climate change, as one might expect, is climate change that occurs on a worldwide scale. Global warming, then, is one kind, or one aspect of, a global climate change.

Why then, some may ask, do we sometimes hear the terms "global warming" and "climate change" used interchangeably? The reason for this is that, initially, when scientists began to hypothesize about the effects of human carbon emissions on global climate, their first reaction was to anticipate that the form of climate change that would likely occur as a result of all that extra carbon would be a warming trend - and some research seemed, at least at that time, to validate this hypothesis.

However, global warming scientists, realizing that the energy trapped within Earth's atmosphere by that extra carbon might lead to some interesting effects, many of which could not be categorized simply as "warming." Therefore, "global warming" science became "climate change" science, to account for such effects as changes in rainfall, wind and water currents, and the like.

So what precisely is the difference between global warming and climate change? Global warming is one type of climate change which the Earth and its inhabitants have repeatedly experienced throughout billions of years of history. With or without our help, we can be sure that climates, both regional and global, will continue to happen.

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