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96
TOPIC 10. W EATHER AND CLIMATE
Text 1. Climate change
The term climate change is used to refer to changes in the Earth's climate. In the most
general sense, it can be taken to mean changes over all timescales and in all of the
components of climate, including precipitation and clouds as well as temperature. Climate
changes can be caused both by natural forces and by human activities.
However in recent usage, especially in the context of environmental policy, it refers
more specifically to changes being studied in the present, including an average rise in
surface temperature, or global warming. International efforts to study and address climate
change are coordinated through the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change. Note, however, that the UNFCCC defines "climate change" as anthropogenic and
uses "climate variation" to mean what is used by most other sources to be "climate change".
Sometimes the term "anthropogenic climate change" is used to indicate the presumption of
human influence.
For information on climate measurements over various periods, and the data sources
available, see historical temperature record. For attribution of climate change over the past
century, see attribution of recent climate change. For global warming episodes in the
geological record, see Permian-Triassic extinction event and Paleocene-Eocene Thermal
M aximu m.
Climate changes due to internal factors and external factors. Internal factors are those
due to interactions within the earth's climate system. External factors, called climate
forcings, are divided into natural factors, such as variations in solar radiation, and
anthropogenic factors (those attributed to human activities).
There is general agreement among scientists (as revealed by the scientific literature)
that:
• The 100 kyr ice age cycles are controlled by orbital forcing - variations in the
seasonal and geographical distribution of insolation; and in the total insolation.
• The rapid temperature changes seen in ice cores during the last glacial were probably
caused by events associated with the Laurentide ice sheet and thus count as "internal
variability".
• The Little Ice Age was probably caused by solar variation or volcanic activity.

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