Climate variability and change: Difference between revisions

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'''Climate change''' refers to the variation in the [[Earth]]'s global [[climate]] or in regional climates over time. It describes changes in the variability or average state of the atmosphere over time scales ranging from decades to millions of years. These changes can be caused by processes internal to the Earth, external forces (e.g. variations in sunlight intensity) or, more recently, [[anthropogenic climate change|human]] activities.

In recent usage, especially in the context of poo[[environmental policy]], the term "climate change" often refers only to changes in modern climate, including the rise in average surface [[temperature]] known as [[global warming]]. In some cases, the term is also used with a presumption of human causation, as in the [[United Nations]] [[UNFCCC|Framework Convention on Climate Change]] (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC uses "climate variability" for non-human caused variations.<ref>http://www.grida.no/climate/ipcc_tar/wg1/518.htm</ref>

For information on temperature measurements over various periods, and the data sources available, see [[temperature record]]. For attribution of climate change over the past century, see [[attribution of recent climate change]].