Climate Change 101: climate science basics

97% of climate scientists agree:

• Climate change is happening now.
• It is being driven primarily by human activity.
• We can do something to reduce its impacts and progression.

What’s the difference between weather, climate, climate variability and climate change?
• Weather is the temperature, humidity, precipitation, cloudiness and wind that we experience in the atmosphere at
a given time in a specific location.
• Climate is the average weather over a long time period (30 – 50 years) in a region.
• Climate variability refers to natural variation in climate that occurs over months to decades. El Niño, which changes
temperature, rain and wind patterns in many regions over about 2 – 7 years, is a good example of natural climate
variability, also called natural variability.
• Climate change is “a systematic change in the long-term state of the atmosphere over multiple decades or longer.”1
° Scientists use statistical tests to determine the probability that changes in the climate are within the range of
natural variability — similar to the statistical tests used in clinical trials to determine whether a positive response
to treatment is likely to have occurred by chance. For example, there is a less than 1% chance that the warming
of the atmosphere since 1950 could be the result of natural climate variability.

What causes climate change?

At its most basic, climate change is caused by a change in the earth’s energy balance. how much of the energy from the
sun that enters the earth (and its atmosphere) is released back into space. The earth is gaining energy as we reduce the
amount of solar energy that is reflected out to space just like people gain weight if there is an imbalance between
calories in and calories out.

Why Short-Lived Climate Pollutants Matter?

The greenhouse gases with a high global warming potential but a short lifetime in the atmosphere are called
“short-lived climate pollutants” (SLCP). Key SLCP include methane, black carbon, and the fluorinated gases. Because of
the combination of a short half-life and high GWP, the climate change impacts of the SLCP are front-loaded more of the
impacts occur sooner, while the full weight of impacts from CO2 will be felt later.

There is a lot we can do about climate change.

In general, climate solutions fall into two big buckets “mitigation” and “adaptation.” Increasingly, government and
community organizations also talk about measures to increase climate “resilience.” These concepts are not distinct and
are all interrelated. From the Global Change Research Project:

• Mitigation refers to “measures to reduce the amount and speed of future climate change by reducing emissions of
heat-trapping gases or removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”
• Adaptation refers to measures taken to reduce the harmful impacts of climate change or take advantage of any
beneficial opportunities through “adjustments in natural or human systems.”
• Resilience means the “capability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from significant threats with
minimum damage to social well-being, the economy, and the environment.”

Climate and Health Co-Benefits

Although climate change is the greatest health challenge of our century, action to address it has the potential for huge
health benefits. Consideration of the health and equity impacts of various mitigation and adaptation strategies
can help optimize the health benefits of climate action. For more information on the health co-benefits of
climate actions, see the following “Climate Action for Healthy People, Healthy Places, Healthy Planet” briefs:

• Transportation, Climate Change and Health:

Reducing vehicle miles traveled through walking, biking, and public transit increases physical activity, significantly
reduces chronic disease risks, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

• Energy, Climate Change and Health:

Switching from coal combustion to clean, safe, renewable energy is one of the most important things we can do
for our health and for the climate.

• Food & Agriculture, Climate Change and Health:

Shifting to healthy diets and local, sustainable food and agriculture systems, offers significant health, climate, and
environmental benefits.

• Urban Greening & Green Infrastructure, Climate Change and Health:

Urban greening reduces the risk of heat illness and flooding, lowers energy costs, and supports health. Green
spaces provide places to be physically active and trees sequester CO2, improve air quality, capture rainwater, and
replenish groundwater.

Biodiversity is the variety of life on Earth, it includes all organisms, species, and populations; the genetic
variation among these; and their complex assemblages of communities and ecosystems. It also refers to the
interrelatedness of genes, species, and ecosystems and in turn, their interactions with the environment. Three levels of
biodiversity are commonly discussed genetic, species and ecosystem diversity.

1. Genetic diversity is all the different genes contained in all the living species, including individual plants, animals, fungi,
and microorganisms.

2. Species diversity is all the different species, as well as the differences within and between different species.

3. Ecosystem diversity is all the different habitats, biological communities, and ecological processes, as well as variation
within individual ecosystems.
What are the main causes of biodiversity loss?

There are many threats to our natural world, which include:

What’s happening?
Fast isn’t always good. Species are becoming extinct at the fastest rate known in geological history, and most of these
extinctions are tied to human activity.

Some conservation organizations estimate species are heading towards extinction at a rate of about one every 20
minutes.

One figure frequently cited is that the rapid loss of species we are seeing today is estimated to be between 1,000 and
10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate.

Experts calculate that between 0.01 and 0.1 per cent of all species will continue to become extinct each year, if we carry
on with business as usual.
That may not sound like very much, but consider that if there are 100 million species on Earth as some estimates
suggest, then between 10,000 and 100,000 species are becoming extinct each year.

Looking at recent assessments we know that more than one third of species assessed in a 2009 major international
biodiversity study, are threatened with extinction. Of the 47,677 species in the International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species of 2009, 17,291 are deemed to be at serious risk.

The list reveals that 21 per cent of all known mammals, 30 per cent of all known amphibians, 12 per cent of all known
birds, 28 per cent of reptiles, 37 per cent of freshwater fishes, 70 per cent of plants and 35 per cent of invertebrates
assessed so far, are under threat.

Why does it matter?

Biodiversity conservation provides substantial benefits to meet immediate human needs, such as clean, consistent water
flows, protection from floods and storms and a stable climate. The loss of biodiversity is dangerous, and its
consequences are immediate:

Cultural diversity and biodiversity are intimately related to each other. If we lose one, we risk losing the other.

The diversity of societies, cultures and languages that has developed throughout human history is intimately related to
biodiversity and its use.