6 charts explaining climate change that everyone should see | World Economic Forum. As COP26 continues in Glasgow, an atmospheric scientist explores the key driving forces behind climate change and the impact it's having on the planet. What Is Climate Change? Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun's activity or large Climate change describes a change in the typical weather for a region — such as high and low temperatures and amount of rainfall — over a long period of time. Scientists have observed that, overall, Earth is warming. In fact, many of the warmest years on record have happened in the past 20 years. What We Know About Climate Change | MIT Climate Portal. New to Climate Change? Visit the MIT Climate Primer. What We Know About Climate Change. The Earth's climate is changing faster today than ever before in the history of our species - and human actions are the main reason why. The Science. The Earth's climate is changing and the global climate is projected to continue to change over this century and beyond. Climate change is the long-term shift in the Earth's average temperatures and weather conditions. The world is now more than 1.1C warmer than it was in the late 19th Causes and Effects of Climate Change. Fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - are by far the largest contributor to global climate change, accounting for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place. Climate change could refer to a particular location or the planet as a whole. Climate change may cause weather patterns to be less predictable. These unexpected weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and grow crops in regions that rely Published April 19, 2021 Updated Nov. 6, 2021. Leer en español. The science of climate change is more solid and widely agreed upon than you might think. But the scope of the topic, as well as The Short Answer: Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time. NASA scientists have observed Earth's surface is warming, and many of the warmest years on record have happened in the past 20 years. iceG8.