Kristiina
June 13, 2023
Environment
5 min

What are climate change and global warming?

Climate change, also known as the climate crisis, is one of the biggest issues facing young people nowadays.

Across the world, increasingly more people have begun to realise that climate change and global warming are two of the greatest threats humanity is up against today. Using fossil fuels (such as coal, oil, and gas) over the last century has caused the earth to warm up, which has devastating effects for the planet.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR6 report stated that it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land and that we are already seeing the effects of global warming through extreme weather and climate events like heat waves, flooding, droughts and more.

In this article, we will try to explain what climate change and global warming are and why they are happening.

What is global warming?

One of the most known aspects of climate change is global warming. Global warming refers to the rise in the average temperature of the Earth. According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the average temperature on Earth has increased by 1 °C over the last 100 years, with the Arctic warming more than twice as fast. It may not seem like much when you think about it in terms of our daily experience with changing temperatures, but it has had a significant impact on the planet. A change of just one degree can result in fertile land turning into desert, coral reefs going from healthy to dead and thriving wildlife becoming extinct. Most people already know some of the effects of global warming, such as the ice caps melting and the sea levels rising, but there are many more consequences that not only threaten wildlife and the environment, but have an impact on our quality of life by reducing air quality and increasing the frequency of extreme weather events that damage our homes and communities and threaten our future.

If the world is heating up, why do the winters seem colder?

Some people claim that the Earth cannot be heating up when some parts of the world are experiencing extreme cold spells. Although it may be incredibly cold in a certain area, the average temperature is warmer across the world. In order to understand why extremely cold weather events are the result of climate change, we need to look at the difference between weather and climate.

What is the difference between weather and climate?

Although it may seem like the same thing, there is an important difference between weather and climate.

Weather

Weather refers to the day-to-day change in temperature and conditions in a certain area. For example, one day could be rainy, but the next day sunny. The weather in one area can differ from the weather in another. For example, the same day can be sunny in Tallinn, but rainy in Tartu. Weather changes from one day to the next.

Climate

Climate refers to the weather that is normal in a certain area in each season. Estonia has four seasons. We generally do not experience very high temperatures in summer and winters are snowy and quite cold. The climate can be different in each season, but there is an understanding as to what is normal or summer weather in Estonia.

What is climate change?

When an area starts to experience weather conditions that are not normal for the season, it is usually caused by climate change. Things like heat waves in summer or snow in April are unusual weather events in Estonia, but they are happening because the climate is changing rapidly and breaking down. However, climate change does not mean just hotter summers. It can also result in more extreme and unpredictable weather events, such as storms or hurricanes, which can threaten our towns, homes and lives. Events like major floods or forest fires that we see happening across the world are examples of extreme weather that can destroy homes and communities, and we are starting to see these events in Estonia too.

What causes climate change?

Although climate change can happen naturally to some extent as the Earth moves further from or closer to the Sun, the current level of climate change is a result of human activity – burning fossil fuels. Our daily activities, such as driving cars, cooking and heating our homes use energy that uses fossil fuels to run. Other activities, such as intensive farming and logging, also contribute to climate change. These activities release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, causing the planet to warm up. There are three main activities that release the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to climate change:

Burning fossil fuels
Intensive farming and agriculture
Deforestation

What can we do against climate change?

When it comes to taking action against climate change, we have to act now. This means that everyone should take steps to reduce their carbon footprint, but it also means pressuring our governments and companies to take the necessary steps to reduce emissions, as outlined in the UN Paris Agreement.

Source: www.spunout.ie

The article was translated and edited by Liis Enson.