This is a list of climate change topics.
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This is a list of climate change topics.
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100% renewable energy - 100,000-year problem - 1500-Year climate cycle - 4 Degrees and Beyond International Climate Conference
Abrupt climate change - The Age of Stupid - Albedo - An Inconvenient Truth - An Inconvenient Book - Antarctica cooling controversy - Antarctic Bottom Water - Antarctic Cold Reversal - Antarctic oscillation - Anthropocene extinction - Arctic amplification - Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - Arctic geoengineering - Arctic shrinkage - Arctic oscillation - Atlantic oscillation - Arctic Climate Impact Assessment - Arctic methane release - Arctic sea ice decline - Arctic shrinkage - Argo (oceanography) - ARkStorm - Athabasca oil sands - Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation - Atmospheric circulation - Atmospheric sciences - Atmospheric window - Attribution of recent climate change - Aviation and climate change - Aviation and the environment - Avoiding dangerous climate change
Bali Communiqué - Bali Road Map - Bezos Earth Fund - Biochar - Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage - Bio-geoengineering - Black carbon - Blytt–Sernander system - Broad spectrum revolution - Business action on climate change
Callendar effect - Cap and Share - Carbon bubble - Carbon capture and storage - Carbon cycle - Carbon negative - Carbon neutral - Carbon price - Carbon project - Carbon sequestration - Carbon offset - Carbon sink - Carbon tax - Catastrophic climate change - Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change - Clathrate gun hypothesis - Clean coal technology - Clean Energy Trends - Climate - Climate change - Climate change acronyms - Climate Change Act 2008 - Climate change denial - Climate change feedback - Climate change in Japan - Climate change in popular culture - Climate change mitigation - Climate change mitigation - Climate change mitigation scenarios - Climate Code Red (book) - Climate commitment - Climate communication - Climate crisis - Climate crunch - Climate cycle - Climate emergency declaration - Climate engineering - Climate ethics - Climate governance- Climate Investment Funds - Climate model - Climate refugee - Climate risk management - Climate scientists (list) - Climate sensitivity - Climate spiral - Climate stabilization wedge - Climate surprise - Climate system - Climate variability - Climate Vulnerable Forum - Climatic Research Unit email controversy - Cloud feedback - Cloud reflectivity enhancement - Coal phase out - Contraction and Convergence - Contrail - Cool roof - Cool tropics paradox - Coral bleaching
The Day After Tomorrow - Dendroclimatology - Divergence problem - Drought - Drought in the United States
Early anthropocene - Earth Hour - Earth's atmosphere - Earth's energy budget - Earthshine - East Antarctic Ice Sheet - Eco-efficiency - Ecological Forecasting - Ecotax - Effects of climate change on agriculture - Effect of climate change on plant biodiversity - Effects of climate change on marine mammals - Effects of climate change on oceans - Effects of climate change - Effects of climate change on Australia - Effects of climate change on India - Efficient energy use - El Niño (ENSO) - Emission inventory - Emission Reduction Unit - Emission standards - Emissions trading - Energie-Cités - Energy Autonomy - Energy conservation - Energy forestry - Energy poverty - Enteric fermentation - Environmental crime - Environmental impact of aviation - Environmental skepticism - European Climate Forum - Evidence of global warming - Externality
Fossil fuel - Fossil fuel divestment - Fossil fuel phase out - Fossil fuel power plant - Freon - Food security
G8+5 - Geoengineering - GFDL CM2.X - Glacial period - Global Change Master Directory - Global climate model - Global cooling - Global climate model (General Circulation Model) - Global dimming - Global warming - Global warming controversy - Global warming hiatus - Global warming period - Global warming potential - Greenhouse and icehouse Earth - Greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture - Greenhouse debt - Greenhouse effect - Greenhouse gas - Greenhouse gas accounting - Greenhouse gas inventory - Gulf Stream
Heiligendamm Process - Hell and High Water - History of climate change science - Hockey stick graph - Holocene - Holocene Climatic Optimum - Holocene extinction - Homogenization - How Global Warming Works - Hydraulic fracturing - Hydrological geoengineering - Hypermobile travellers
Ice age - Ice core - Ice sheet dynamics - Individual and political action on climate change - Insolation - Instrumental temperature record - Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - International Conference on Climate Change - IPCC list of greenhouse gases
Laudato si - List of climate scientists - List of geoengineering topics - List of ministers of climate change - List of proposed geoengineering projects - Little Ice Age - Long-term effects of global warming
Magnetosphere - Maunder Minimum - Mauna Loa - Media coverage of climate change- Medieval Warm Period - Meridional overturning circulation - Meteorology - Methane - Methane clathrate - Milankovitch cycles - Molecular-scale temperature
Nitrous oxide (N2O) - North Atlantic Deep Water - North Atlantic oscillation - Northwest Passage
Ocean acidification - Ocean anoxia - Older Dryas - Oldest Dryas - Overpopulation - Ozone depletion
Pacific decadal oscillation - Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum - Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project - Paleothermometer - Parameterization - Planetary engineering - Peak oil - Phenology - Physical impacts of climate change - Polar amplification - Proxy
Radiative forcing - Renewable energy - Renewable energy commercialization - Retreat of glaciers since 1850 - Runaway climate change
Sahara pump theory - Satellite temperature measurements - Scientific opinion on climate change - Scientific consensus - Scientific skepticism - Sea level rise - Shutdown of thermohaline circulation - Sixth extinction - Slash and burn - Snowball Earth - Solar Radiation Management - Solar shade - Solar variation - Space sunshade - Stratospheric Particle Injection for Climate Engineering - Stratospheric sulfur aerosols - Stratospheric sulfur aerosols (geoengineering) - Sunspot - Surveys of scientists' views on climate change - Sustainable energy
Table of Historic and Prehistoric Climate Indicators - Temperature record of the past 1000 years - Temperature record since 1880 - Thermohaline circulation - Timeline of glaciation - TEX-86 - Thermocline - The Deniers - The Great Global Warming Swindle - The Republican War on Science - Timeline of environmental history - Tipping point (climatology)
Urban heat island - UN climate change conference 2009 - The Uninhabitable Earth
Warming stripes - Waste heat - Water World - West Antarctic Ice Sheet - World climate research programme - World Climate Report
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The Eocene Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name Eocene comes from the Ancient Greek ἠώς and καινός and refers to the "dawn" of modern ('new') fauna that appeared during the epoch.
The greenhouse effect is a process that occurs after energy from a planet's host star goes through the planet's atmosphere and heats the planet's surface. When the planet radiates the heat back out as thermal infrared radiation, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere absorb some of it, heating Earth's lower atmosphere and surface. By trapping heat near the surface, they also cause the upper atmosphere to cool, reducing the amount of heat emitted into space and causing Earth to absorb more energy than it emits. Without the greenhouse effect, the Earth's average surface temperature would be about −18 °C (−0.4 °F) compared to Earth's actual average surface temperature of approximately 14 °C (57.2 °F). In addition to the naturally present greenhouse gases, human-caused increases in greenhouse gases are trapping greater amounts of heat. Burning fossil fuels has increased atmospheric carbon dioxide by about 50% over pre-industrial levels, which is the primary driver for global warming.
Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. Climate change may refer to any time in Earth's history, but the term is now commonly used to describe contemporary climate change. Since the Industrial Revolution, the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities.
Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (8CH4·46H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice. Originally thought to occur only in the outer regions of the Solar System, where temperatures are low and water ice is common, significant deposits of methane clathrate have been found under sediments on the ocean floors of the Earth. Methane hydrate is formed when hydrogen-bonded water and methane gas come into contact at high pressures and low temperatures in oceans.
This glossary of climate change is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to climate change, global warming, and related topics.
Climate engineering is a term used for both carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM), also called solar geoengineering, when applied at a planetary scale. However, they have very different geophysical characteristics which is why the IPCC no longer uses this overarching term. Carbon dioxide removal approaches are part of climate change mitigation. Solar geoengineering involves reflecting some sunlight back to space. All forms of geoengineering are not a standalone solution to climate change, but need to be coupled with other forms of climate change mitigation. Another approach to geoengineering is to increase the Earth's thermal emittance through passive radiative cooling.
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to Earth's climate. The current rise in global average temperature is more rapid than previous changes, and is primarily caused by humans burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use, deforestation, and some agricultural and industrial practices increase greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide and methane. Greenhouse gases absorb some of the heat that the Earth radiates after it warms from sunlight. Larger amounts of these gases trap more heat in Earth's lower atmosphere, causing global warming.
Earth's climate system is a complex system having five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. Climate is the statistical characterization of the climate system, representing the average weather, typically over a period of 30 years, and is determined by a combination of processes in the climate system, such as ocean currents and wind patterns. Circulation in the atmosphere and oceans is primarily driven by solar radiation and transports heat from the tropical regions to regions that receive less energy from the Sun. The water cycle also moves energy throughout the climate system. In addition, different chemical elements, necessary for life, are constantly recycled between the different components.
In Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of several greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Earth. The current global average concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is 421 ppm as of May 2022. This is an increase of 50% since the start of the Industrial Revolution, up from 280 ppm during the 10,000 years prior to the mid-18th century. The increase is due to human activity. Burning fossil fuels is the main cause of these increased CO2 concentrations and also the main cause of climate change. Other large anthropogenic sources include cement production, deforestation, and biomass burning.
Ocean heat content (OHC) is the energy absorbed and stored by oceans. Between 1971 and 2018, the rise in OHC accounts for over 90% of Earth’s excess thermal energy from global heating. The main driver of this OHC increase was most likely anthropogenic forcing via rising greenhouse gas emissions. By 2020, about one third of the added energy had propagated to depths below 700 meters. Ocean heat content and sea level rise are important indicators of climate change. The term is used in oceanography and climatology.
Major environmental issues caused by contemporary climate change in the Arctic region range from the well-known, such as the loss of sea ice or melting of the Greenland ice sheet, to more obscure, but deeply significant issues, such as permafrost thaw, social consequences for locals and the geopolitical ramifications of these changes. The Arctic is likely to be especially affected by climate change because of the high projected rate of regional warming and associated impacts. Temperature projections for the Arctic region were assessed in 2007: These suggested already averaged warming of about 2 °C to 9 °C by the year 2100. The range reflects different projections made by different climate models, run with different forcing scenarios. Radiative forcing is a measure of the effect of natural and human activities on the climate. Different forcing scenarios reflect things such as different projections of future human greenhouse gas emissions.
Polar meteorology is the study of the atmosphere of Earth's polar regions. Surface temperature inversion is typical of polar environments and leads to the katabatic wind phenomenon. The vertical temperature structure of polar environments tends to be more complex than in mid-latitude or tropical climates.
Solar geoengineering, or solar radiation modification (SRM), is a type of climate engineering in which sunlight would be reflected back to outer space to limit human-caused climate change. It is not a substitute for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but would act as a temporary measure to limit warming while emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced and carbon dioxide is removed. The most studied methods of SRM are stratospheric aerosol injection and marine cloud brightening.
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy at thermal infrared wavelengths, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and ozone (O3). Without greenhouse gases, the average temperature of Earth's surface would be about −18 °C (0 °F), rather than the present average of 15 °C (59 °F). The atmospheres of Venus, Mars and Titan also contain greenhouse gases.
Stratospheric aerosol injection is a proposed method of solar geoengineering to reduce global warming. This would introduce aerosols into the stratosphere to create a cooling effect via global dimming and increased albedo, which occurs naturally from volcanic eruptions. It appears that stratospheric aerosol injection, at a moderate intensity, could counter most changes to temperature and precipitation, take effect rapidly, have low direct implementation costs, and be reversible in its direct climatic effects. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concludes that it "is the most-researched [solar geoengineering] method, with high agreement that it could limit warming to below 1.5°C." However, like other solar geoengineering approaches, stratospheric aerosol injection would do so imperfectly and other effects are possible, particularly if used in a suboptimal manner.
Atmospheric methane is the methane present in Earth's atmosphere. The concentration of atmospheric methane—one of the most potent greenhouse gases—is increasing due to methane emissions, and is causing climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) use tens of acronyms and initialisms in documents relating to climate change policy.
Climate change feedbacks are important in the understanding of global warming because feedback processes amplify or diminish the effect of each climate forcing, and so play an important part in determining the climate sensitivity and future climate state. Feedback in general is the process in which changing one quantity changes a second quantity, and the change in the second quantity in turn changes the first. Positive feedback amplifies the change in the first quantity while negative feedback reduces it.
In earth science, global surface temperature is calculated by averaging the temperature at the surface of the sea and air temperature over land. In technical writing, scientists call long-term changes in GST global cooling or global warming. Periods of both have happened regularly throughout earth's history.
Methane reservoirs on Earth are mainly found in
