Climate and climate change
For everyone
Earth's climate has changed many times between ice ages and warm periods. That some gases trap heat (the greenhouse effect) was shown by experiment in the 19th century, and atmospheric carbon dioxide has been measured continuously since 1958. The causes of recent decades' warming and its future extent are central topics of climate science, with mainstream assessments and views that dispute them.
For specialists
The climate system consists of interactions of atmosphere, ocean, ice, land and biosphere. Radiative forcing (W/m²), climate sensitivity (equilibrium warming for doubled CO₂) and feedbacks (water vapour, clouds, ice albedo) are basic concepts. Palaeoclimate data come from ice cores, ocean sediments and tree rings.
Claims
- Equilibrium warming for doubled CO₂ is likely in the range 2.6–3.9 °C, based on multiple lines of evidence.[1]
Connections
Sources
- Article (2020). An assessment of Earth's climate sensitivity using multiple lines of evidence. Reviews of Geophysics 58, e2019RG000678DOI 10.1029/2019RG000678archive
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Cite this page
Athena contributors. (2026). Climate and climate change. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/iklim/
@misc{athena_iklim,
title = {Climate and climate change},
author = {{Athena contributors}},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/iklim/}},
note = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 27, 2026 · Page history