Feb 01 2007
The difference between climate change and global warming
In a piece on his weblog, Dr. Roger Pielke Sr. discusses the difference between global warming and climate change.
He states:
Global warming or cooling is determined by the difference in Joules between incoming heat (from the Sun) and radiative heat loss from the climate system. This difference between them is referred to as the radiative forcing of the climate system.
In effect, there are only two things that could cause a global warming or cooling: a change amount of energy received, such as a change in the radiant exitance of the sun or a change in the Earth’s orbit, or a change in the partitioning of the energy in the Earth’s ocean/atmosphere system. There has been debate over whether the increase in land temperatures that have been observed are natural or human-caused. I would posit that it doesn’t matter. If the temperature of the Earth’s surface is changing, something needs to be done to mitigate the effects.
The definition of climate change is then:
The broader human climate change issue, however, is how are humans altering the climate system in response to the diversity of climate forcings that are identified in the 2005 National Research Council report.
So by his definition, climate change is how most people would define anthropogenic climate change. I would define climate change as a change in the local, regional, or global climate such that when globally averaged do not yield a net radiative warming or cooling. Humans have a huge influence on regional climate with issues such as anthropogenic aerosols and land-use change.
And if you haven’t heard, the first report from the 2007 IPCC will be released tomorrow. I imagine my day will consist of reading it. Not a bad way to spend a day though.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Related Posts:
One Response to “The difference between climate change and global warming”
To reduce spam, comments are automatically closed 30 days after the last comment. If you would like to comment on any closed thread, please use the contact form at the top of this page.
[...] warming” to “climate change”. I’ve previously discussed this in the difference between climate change and global warming. Climate change and global warming are two seperate and distinct things - both of which are [...]