Geological and Environmental Sustainability

Global Warming & Climate Change

Submit Abstract Register Now

 Track-15: Global Warming & Climate Change

Global warming and Climate change are often used interchangeably but have distinct meanings. Similarly, the terms weather and climate are sometimes confused, though they refer to events with broadly different spatial and timescales. Weather refers to atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short periods of time from minutes to hours or days. Familiar examples include rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods or thunderstorms. Remember, weather is local and short-term. Climate, on the other hand, refers to the long-term regional or even global average of temperature, humidity and rainfall patterns over seasons, years or decades. Remember, climate is global and long-term. Climate change refers to a broad range of global phenomena created predominantly by burning fossil fuels, which add heat-trapping gases to Earth’s atmosphere. These phenomena include the increased temperature trends described by global warming, but also encompass changes such as sea level rise; ice mass loss in Greenland, Antarctica, the Arctic and mountain glaciers worldwide; shifts in flower/plant blooming; and extreme weather events.