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This descriptive climatology was mainly an applied science, giving farmers and other interested people statistics about what the normal weather was and how great chances were of extreme events. [7] To do this, climatologists had to define a climate normal, or an average of weather and weather extremes over a period of typically 30 years. [8]
Climate (from Ancient Greek κλίμα 'inclination') is commonly defined as the weather averaged over a long period. [9] The standard averaging period is 30 years, [10] but other periods may be used depending on the purpose. Climate also includes statistics other than the average, such as the magnitudes of day-to-day or year-to-year variations.
Climate change can also be used more broadly to include changes to the climate that have happened throughout Earth's history. [32] Global warming—used as early as 1975 [33] —became the more popular term after NASA climate scientist James Hansen used it in his 1988 testimony in the U.S. Senate. [34] Since the 2000s, climate change has ...
Reconstructions of global temperature of the past 2000 years, using composite of different proxy methods. In the study of past climates ("paleoclimatology"), climate proxies are preserved physical characteristics of the past that stand in for direct meteorological measurements [1] and enable scientists to reconstruct the climatic conditions over a longer fraction of the Earth's history.
The five components of the climate system all interact. They are the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. [1]: 1451 Earth's climate system is a complex system with five interacting components: the atmosphere (air), the hydrosphere (water), the cryosphere (ice and permafrost), the lithosphere (earth's upper rocky layer) and the biosphere (living things).
This year's U.N. climate summit - COP29 - is being held during yet another record-breaking year of higher global temperatures, adding pressure to negotiations aimed at curbing climate change. The ...
weather - the hourly/daily change in atmospheric conditions which over a longer period constitute the climate of a region cf. climate. weathering - is the breaking down of rocks, soil, and minerals as well as wood and artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, water, and biological organisms.
'Global heating' is among a range of climate-related terms added to a special update of the Oxford English Dictionary.