Meaning of Climate Change
To proceed to know the meaning of the term climate change, it is necessary that, first of all, we discover the etymological origin of the two words that give it its shape:
-Change is a word that comes from Latin, specifically from “cambium” that can be translated like “giving one thing for another.”
-Climate, on the other hand, derives from the Greek. It means “relative to atmospheric conditions” and is the result of the union of two clearly delimited terms: the noun “klima”, which is equivalent to “inclination of the sun”, and the suffix “-tikos”, which is used to indicate ” relative to”.
A change is a modification, alteration or transformation of something. Climatic, on the other hand, is an adjective that refers to the climate: the set formed by the conditions of the atmosphere that are characteristic of a certain area.
The idea of climate change, in this context, refers to a change in the climate of the planet Earth generated by the action of the human being. This climate change is produced by the process known as the greenhouse effect, which causes the so-called global warming.
As you can see, there are three major notions that are linked: climate change, the greenhouse effect and global warming. According to DigoPaul, it can be said that climate change is a consequence of global warming, caused in turn by the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect is the process caused by certain gases (greenhouse gases), which absorb part of the thermal radiation emitted by the planet’s surface and “return” it to the surface. This effect generates an increase in temperature: global warming.
This warming, in short, involves climate change on Earth. The higher atmospheric temperature causes glaciers to melt, increases sea level, expands desert regions, modifies rainfall and ends up affecting all living beings.
At this time, we can establish that, at present, climate change has become the main problem of humanity. So much so that its consequences are beginning to be devastating and, if you continue without taking action, they can be even more so.
Entities specialized in the care and protection of the environment release some data related to the transformations that the aforementioned climate change is already causing, such as these:
-The temperature has increased 1.1 degrees, the largest increase in the history of mankind. If everything continues like this, it is expected that by the end of the century we are in, the temperature could have risen by 4.8º C.
-Droughts are being constant in many corners of the planet, which is really a problem for many reasons such as, for example, due to damage to crops.
-There are numerous extreme meteorological phenomena such as hurricanes and storms.
In its broadest sense, the notion of climate change transcends the phenomenon caused by man. Climate change can also be caused by factors not generated by people, such as volcano eruptions, shifts of tectonic plates or even modifications of the sun’s radiation reaching the planet.
