It is a
change in weather
patterns, either global or regional, and it
can be a short (decades) or long (millions of years) term change.
Although in recent times it is
almost synonymous with global
warming,
it's a much broader term.
While the recent unnatural
global
warming is a very short-term
climate change (that's what is so scary about it), natural climate
changes usually happen over millions
and millions of years.
Since the birth of the Earth
4600 million years ago, we have had warmer
periods and we have had ice
ages.
Ice ages
often coincided with mass
extinctions,
like these in the end
of Precambrian, Ordovician, Permian and Cretaceous (dinosaurs'
extinction) periods.
But other than that, the good thing about slow, long-term climate
changes is that animal and plant species have enough time to adapt to
the new conditions.
With sudden
climatic changes, such as the disaster that is thought to have happened
when dinosaurs vanished, plants and animals haven't got enough time to
adapt evolutionarily, and because they cannot survive in the new
climatic conditions, become extinct.
A climate change is more
complex than just warming or cooling. It can bring floods, droughts, stronger hurricanes,
changes in rain patterns etc.
Climate changes are caused
by interactions
between solar activity, the Earth's orbit, volcanic eruptions, plate
movements, mountain building, and greenhouse gases in the amtosphere.
These interactions are so complex
that we do not fully understand them yet. But this is an even better
reason to takeglobal
warming
seriously.
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