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On the Trail of the Missing Ozone · The Case of the Warming Planet · Energy and Global Warming interactive · Climate Change at the Exploratorium · Climate Change - EcoKids · Environment Games · Climate Change and Global Warming · Global Warming Chart (NASA) · Global Warming FLASH games · Quickest ever slide ...

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How does the greenhouse effect work?

As you might expect from the name, the greenhouse effect works ... like a greenhouse! A greenhouse is a building with glass walls and a glass roof. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, such as tomatoes and tropical flowers.

A greenhouse stays warm inside, even during the winter. In the daytime, sunlight shines into the greenhouse and warms the plants and air inside. At nighttime, it's colder outside, but the greenhouse stays pretty warm inside. That's because the glass walls of the greenhouse trap the Sun's heat.

The greenhouse effect works much the same way on Earth. Gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, trap heat similar to the glass roof of a greenhouse. These heat-trapping gases are called greenhouse gases.

During the day, the Sun shines through the atmosphere. Earth's surface warms up in the sunlight. At night, Earth's surface cools, releasing heat back into the air. But some of the heat is trapped by the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That's what keeps our Earth a warm and cozy 58 degrees Fahrenheit (14 degrees Celsius), on average.

How are humans impacting the greenhouse effect?

Human activities are changing Earth's natural greenhouse effect. Burning fossil fuels like coal and oil puts more carbon dioxide into our atmosphere.

NASA has observed increases in the amount of carbon dioxide and some other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. Too much of these greenhouse gases can cause Earth's atmosphere to trap more and more heat. This causes Earth to warm up.

What reduces the greenhouse effect on Earth?

Just like a glass greenhouse, Earth's greenhouse is also full of plants! Plants can help to balance the greenhouse effect on Earth. All plants - from giant trees to tiny phytoplankton in the ocean - take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen.

The ocean also absorbs a lot of excess carbon dioxide in the air. Unfortunately, the increased carbon dioxide in the ocean changes the water, making it more acidic. This is called ocean acidification.

More acidic water can be harmful to many ocean creatures, such as certain shellfish and coral. Warming oceans - from too many greenhouse gases in the atmosphere - can also be harmful to these organisms. Warmer waters are a main cause of coral bleaching.

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As you might expect from the name, the greenhouse effect works ... like a greenhouse! A greenhouse is a building with glass walls and a glass roof. Greenhouses are used to grow plants, such as tomatoes and tropical flowers. A greenhouse stays warm inside, even during the winter.

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: warming of the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet (such as Earth or Venus) that is caused by conversion of solar radiation into heat in a process involving selective transmission of short wave solar radiation by the atmosphere, its absorption by the planet's surface, and reradiation as infrared which is absorbed and partly reradiated back to the surface by atmospheric gases

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warming of the surface and lower atmosphere of a planet (such as Earth or Venus) that is caused by conversion of solar radiation into heat in a process involving selective transmission of short wave solar radiation by the atmosphere, its absorption by the planet's surface,... See the full definition

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📓 High School Level

This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.

📓 High School Level

This shows grade level based on the word's complexity.

a long-term change in the earth's climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature: Melting glaciers imply that life in the Arctic is affected by climate change.

ARE YOU A TRUE BLUE CHAMPION OF THESE "BLUE" SYNONYMS?

We could talk until we're blue in the face about this quiz on words for the color "blue," but we think you should take the quiz and find out if you're a whiz at these colorful terms.

Which of the following words describes "sky blue"?

Origin of climate change

First recorded in 1980-85

Words nearby climate change

climacteric, climactic, climant, climate, climate canary, climate change, climate control, climate denial, climate denier, climate emergency, climatic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021

MORE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE

What is climate change ?

Climate change refers to a sweeping change in global climate conditions, including weather phenomena, temperature, and sea levels. It's caused by an influx of greenhouse gases , mostly from fossil fuel emissions around the world. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere and change weather patterns, warming many areas of the globe and causing erratic season and weather events.
How is term pronounced?
[ klahy-mit cheynj ]

Where does climate change come from?

Starting in the Industrial Revolution and continuing today, the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal) increased at a very high rate. Inventions like the steam engine, factory machines, and other mechanical products have largely been powered by fossil fuels over the last couple hundred years. In particular, the uses of vehicles like cars and planes have caused carbon emissions to skyrocket. The clearing of land for agricultural and urban development has also depleted plant life (plants reduce carbon dioxide concentrations) and produced more carbon emissions. The result of these carbon emissions is climate change.

The effects of climate change are numerous and varied, and will drastically change the conditions of human civilization over the next century or so. As glaciers melt from rising temperatures, sea levels across the world are rising, endangering coastal communities. Many animal populations are being affected by climate change, either by the depletion of their natural habitats or sensitivity to the temperature/chemical change in their environments. The change in Earth's temperature has also created severe weather events (like hurricanes and superstorms ) and seasonal shifts that disrupt crop cycles. Extreme heat as an effect of climate change will render currently inhabited regions unlivable for humans.

Despite the inevitability of some effects of climate change , there are many people who are working to ameliorate or combat the damage. Scientists continue to study climate change and possible solutions to its causes. Many also make ongoing efforts to recycle, decrease carbon emissions, and preserve natural habitats. Due to the global nature of climate change , many international communities have begun to work together to change their practices and reduce their carbon emissions. Much will be lost due to climate change , but the future is never certain, and the ongoing actions of some will hopefully have a positive effect on the fates of many.

Climate change is often used interchangeably with global warming but this use is subject to debate. Though global warming used to be the more popular expression among environmental scientists, climate change is now preferred because it encompasses effects beyond the rising temperatures around the globe. Global warming is often dismissed by climate change deniers, who, for instance, erroneously point to cold spells as evidence against the very existence of climate change .

Examples of climate change

"The effects of climate change will be economic, social, and environmental and will alter people's lives in a myriad of ways that we are just beginning to understand."
-Rosaly Byrd and Laurèn DeMates, HuffPost, December 2014

"Scientists believe we are adding to the natural greenhouse effect with gases released from industry and agriculture (known as emissions), trapping more energy and increasing the temperature. This is commonly referred to as global warming or climate change."
-BBC News, November 2016

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term's history, meaning, and usage.

learn more about climate change

How to use climate change in a sentence

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Definition of climate change | Dictionary.com

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📓 High School Level This shows grade level based on the word's complexity. 📓 High School Level This shows grade level based on the word's complexity. a long-term change in the earth's climate, especially a change due to an increase in the average atmospheric temperature: Melting glaciers imply that life in the Arctic is affected by climate change.

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The greenhouse effect happens when certain gases-known as greenhouse gases-collect in Earth's atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide (N2O), fluorinated gases, and ozone.

Greenhouse gases let the sun's light shine onto the Earth's surface, but they trap the heat that reflects back up into the atmosphere. In this way, they act like the glass walls of a greenhouse. This greenhouse effect keeps the Earth warm enough to sustain life. Scientists say that without the greenhouse effect, the average temperature of the Earth would drop from 14˚C (57˚F) to as low as -18˚C (-0.4˚F).

Some greenhouse gases come from natural sources. Evaporation adds water vapor to the atmosphere. Animals and plants release carbon dioxide when they respire, or breathe. Methane is released naturally from some low-oxygen environments, such as swamps. Nitrous oxide is produced by certain processes in soil and water. Volcanoes-both on land and under the ocean-release greenhouse gases, so periods of high volcanic activity tend to be warmer.

Since the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, people have been releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. That amount has skyrocketed in the past century. Greenhouse gas emissions increased 70 percent between 1970 and 2004. Emissions of CO2, the most important greenhouse gas, rose by about 80 percent during that time. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere today far exceeds the natural range seen over the last 650,000 years.

Most of the CO2 that people put into the atmosphere comes from burning fossil fuels. Cars, trucks, trains, and planes all burn fossil fuels. Many electric power plants do, as well. Another way humans release CO2 into the atmosphere is by cutting down forests, because trees contain large amounts of carbon.

People add methane to the atmosphere through livestock farming, landfills, and fossil fuel production such as coal mining and natural gas processing. Nitrous oxide comes from agriculture and fossil fuel burning. Fluorinated gases include chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). These gases are used in aerosol cans and refrigeration.

All of these human activities add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. As the level of these gases rises, so does the temperature of the Earth. The rise in Earth's average temperature contributed to by human activity is known as global warming.

The Greenhouse Effect and Climate Change

Even slight increases in average global temperatures can have huge effects. Perhaps the biggest, most obvious effect is that glaciers and ice caps melt faster than usual. The meltwater drains into the oceans, causing sea levels to rise.

Glaciers and ice caps cover about 10 percent of the world's landmasses. They hold about 75 percent of the world's freshwater. If all of this ice melted, sea levels would rise by about 70 meters (230 feet). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states that the global sea level rose about 1.8 millimeters per year from 1961 to 1993, and 3.1 millimeters per year since 1993.

Rising sea levels could flood coastal cities, displacing millions of people in low-lying areas such as Bangladesh, the U.S. state of Florida, and the Netherlands. Millions more people in countries like Bolivia, Peru, and India depend on glacial meltwater for drinking, irrigation, and hydroelectric power. Rapid loss of these glaciers would devastate those countries.

Greenhouse gas emissions affect more than just temperature. Another effect involves changes in precipitation, such as rain and snow. Over the course of the 20th century, precipitation increased in eastern parts of North and South America, northern Europe, and northern and central Asia. However, it has decreased in parts of Africa, the Mediterranean, and southern Asia.

As climates change, so do the habitats for living things. Animals that are adapted to a certain climate may become threatened. Many human societies depend on specific crops for food, clothing, and trade. If the climate of an area changes, the people who live there may no longer be able to grow the crops they depend on for survival. Some scientists also worry that tropical diseases will expand their ranges into more temperate regions if the temperatures of those areas increase.

Most climate scientists agree that we must reduce the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. There are lots of ways to do this, including:

Fly less. Airplanes produce huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Plant a tree. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, keeping it out of the atmosphere.

Eat less meat. Cows are one of the biggest methane producers.

Support alternative energy sources that don't burn fossil fuels.

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Sources

Dunn, Margery G. (Editor). (1989, 1993). "Exploring Your World: The Adventure of Geography." Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society.

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The greenhouse effect happens when certain gases-known as greenhouse gases-collect in Earth's atmosphere. These gases include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, nitrous oxide (N2O), fluorinated gases, and ozone. Greenhouse gases let the sun's light shine onto the Earth's surface, but they trap the heat that reflects back up into the atmosphere.

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Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye | National Geographic