Differences Between Global Warming and Climate Change

The terms “global warming” and “climate change” are often used interchangeably. Although these terms refer to completely different phenomena in scientific literature, they are inherently interrelated.

We prepared this blog post to correctly define both concepts and to clarify how they are measured and their interrelatedness. Enjoy reading!

What Is Global Warming?

Global warming refers to long-term warming of the planet. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines global warming; “an increase in combined surface, air and sea surface temperatures averaged over the globe and over a 30-year period.” Research have been conducted for over a century to measure and determine the exact reasons for global warming.

Measurements Taken Throughout History

The average surface temperature of the globe rose and fell throughout the history of our planet. Scientists started to measure the global temperature records as of 1880. The observations before this date mostly come from farmers who recorded daily temperatures, precipitation measurements, and the first and last frosts in their personal diaries in the 17th century. This data was observed to be generally correct when it was compared with the new technological data.

For long-term data, paleoclimatologists, i.e., scientists studying old climates, are looking at the historical changes in pollen counts, advancement and recession of mountain glaciers, ice cores, chemical decomposition of rocks, tree rings and locations of species, coastal strip changes and lacustrine sediments.

Today, scientists are constantly developing the correctness of recorded data and the ways to interpret and model these. Although temperature records vary depending on the region, altitude and other factors, scientists are able to reach more definite results about the facts of global warming.

For example, natural events such as asteroid crashes and big volcanic eruptions have dramatic impacts on global warming, and they can cause mass extinctions. The cyclical changes in the positioning of the Earth relative to the Sun, called as Milankovitch cycles, effect global temperatures and can create changes on the climate throughout thousands of years. These types of impacts, however, do not explain the short-term changes we witnessed in the past 150 years.

Our planet has never been so warm. The average temperature of the globe has increased way faster in the past 50 years compared to all warming events in the past. Climatologists concluded that we need to limit global warming to 1.5 centigrade degree by 2040 if we want to avoid a future filled with disasters brought with climate change that can have devastating impacts on daily life such as extreme drought, forest fires, extreme weather events, floods, tropical storms.

What is The Greenhouse Effect?

As of the middle of 19th century, scientists started to define the changes in carbon dioxide concentrations as one of the leading reasons for global temperature changes. In 1856, American physicist Eunice Foote became the first scientist to show how carbon dioxide absorbs solar radiation. Today, scientists have a mutual understanding about Foote’s “an atmosphere filled with carbon dioxide gas will give our globe a high temperature” prediction that this is the main reason of global warming, also known as “the greenhouse effect.” In other words, higher levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere result in a warmer climate.

In 1988, James Hansen, Director of NASA Goddard Space Research Institute, expressed in the US Congress that there is a “cause and effect relation” between the greenhouse effect and observed warming.

Now everybody agrees that the greenhouse gas emissions increased as a result of human activities are the main reason for global climate crisis. As the greenhouse gases concentrate in the atmosphere, they isolate the surface of the globe just like a blanket that locks in the heat, and this phenomenon we call ‘the greenhouse effect’ increases the average temperature on the planet. This increase in temperature triggers a series of climate events such as melting of glaciers, rising temperatures in the ocean, rising sea levels, changing climate, extreme weather events becoming more frequent.

We can list the main greenhouse gases as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor and fluorogases. Carbon dioxide comes out as a result of burning fossil fuels, particularly coal and oil.

According to the IPCC report, we are exceeding the 1.5-degree temperature increase threshold by 2040 even in the ideal scenario in which the most assertive solutions have been realized to keep the emissions in check.

For more information about Greenhouse Gases, check out our blog post here.​

Human-Caused Reasons

The rapid increase in the greenhouse gas accumulations released into the atmosphere with human activities such as utilization of fossil fuels, changes in land use, deforestation and industrial processes intensify the natural greenhouse effect; as a result, the average surface temperatures of the globe increase, and changes are experienced in the climate. Scientific community accepted unanimously that the greenhouse gas emissions and the associated temperature rise, and the global climate crisis are all human-caused. This is not a new finding. For example, naturalist Alexander von Humboldt observed how deforestation increases atmospheric temperatures at an early date as 1800. Today, controlled burnings with tons of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere such as forest fires also became an additional carbon source for centuries.

These conventional methods, however, pale by comparison with the amount of greenhouse gas emitted with the invention of coal-fired vapor machine. We listed below the usual suspects:

1- Coal usage increased 100th times in the 19th century, grew by 50% by 1950, tripled between 1950 and 2000, and almost doubled between 2000 and 2015.

2- Oil consumption caused a faster growth curve; it grew by 300 times between 1880 and 1988 and by 50% up until 2015.

3- And natural gas was the fastest to increase, with a thousand time increase between the end of 1880s and 1990, followed by 75% increase up until 2015.

Parallel growth in fossil fuel consumption and increase in global surface temperatures are noteworthy. IPCC report states: “Greenhouse gas emissions rose to levels “unseen at least in the last 800,000 years” and “it is very likely that this is the main reason for the warming observed since the middle of the 20th century”.

The simplest way to understand how fossil fuels cause global warming is the allegory of “blanket.” Burning fossil fuels covers the globe with a pollution blanket which captures the heat. The more fossil fuel we burn, the thicker the blanket gets and captures us in more heat.

What is Climate Change?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change defines climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.” Climate is described as the average status of all weather conditions experienced or observed in long-term at a certain place in the world or with a more systematic approach, a synthesis defined with long-term statistics of weather conditions at a certain place such as variations of atmosphere elements and their average values.

Changes in the climate induced by human-caused global warming have long-term effects. These effects once thought to emerge in the near future become increasingly visible today and the most prominent ones are the sudden and unexpected changes in weather conditions. However, other changes occurring in all ecosystems also pose a profoundly serious threat. Climate change includes global warming; however, it refers to a wider range of changes occurring on our planet. These include rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, accelerated melting of glaciers in Greenland, Antarctica and Arctic, changes in blooming times of flowers/plants, emerging urban heat islands, etc.

Extreme Weather Conditions

Global temperature rise, which is the key indicator of climate change, made the weather more brutal and instable, and the frequency and severity of natural disasters showed “an incremental increase in the last decades.” Natural disasters “seen once in a century” such as forest fires, fatal heat waves, droughts, floods, tropical storms, hurricanes, snowstorms, and avalanches have increased 10 times since 1960.
According to World Meteorological Organization, half of the disasters and 74% of the associated economic losses recorded in the last 50 years are due to hazards such as weather, climate, and flood.

When the long-term patterns of weather events are analyzed, climate change is found as the reason for the extreme changes. The increase in global temperatures results in warmer oceans, heat waves, drought, storms, hurricanes, floods, and other extreme weather events.

Threats against Ecosystems

Climate change poses a great threat to all biosphere of the globe, i.e., the ecosystems that support life, and it is even more deadly than natural disasters. Species trying to adapt to the changing climate generally fail. Climate change, thus, directly threatens biodiversity.

For example, corals become more acidic and lose their liveliness as the oceans absorb the atmospheric carbon dioxide. When peatlands and coastal wetlands dry off due to increased temperatures, dead vegetation decomposes faster and causes another disaster by releasing greenhouse gases.

Considering the intense pressures on the biological diversity (habitat changes, invasive species, over utilization, pollution) and the future possible impacts of climate change, many scientists argue that a process called the 6th Extinction may be experienced. According to the “1.5°C Report” published by IPCC, 18% of insects, 8% of vertebrates and 16% of plants will lose more than half of their geographical territory in case temperature increase occurs as 2°C. A temperature increase of 1.5°C will cause a reduction in the productivity of oceans, the species will shift towards higher latitudes and fishing sector will be damaged by this. Moreover, 70 to 90% of coral reefs will be destroyed in case of a 2°C temperature increase.

Why Are Global Warming and Climate Change Concepts Important?

Although global warming and climate change concepts are used interchangeably, these are different but interrelated concepts. In this post, we defined both concepts and clarified the differences and connections between the two. We saw how climate changes caused by global warming disrupts the natural balance in the world and the impacts of this on life. The severity of climate change is obvious once again with the weather events getting more severe, threats against ecosystems and the role of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. We will continue to discuss the solutions by looking into these issues more in-depth in our future posts. Thanks for reading!