Firstly, you would have to know what the difference is between climate and weather. There is a good saying that “climate is what you expect, and the weather is what you get”. So the weather is the mix of events that happen each day in the atmosphere. So at the end of each day, you can say if it was a sunny, cloudy, or rainy day, and you can also describe the temperature. You can also get information about each day’s weather from the weather forecast. Climate describes the kind of weather a specific area has for a longer period of time. For describing climate, you can say that usually we have sunny and really hot summers, or you can also say how the seasons differ from each other. For weather, we are talking about days, and for describing climate, we usually use 30 years.

Secondly, you have to know the difference between global warming and climate change. Global warming is just one aspect of climate change. Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. The Earth’s climate is always changing. In the past 4.5 billion years, the climate has changed a lot. The climate has gone hotter, and it has also gotten colder. For example, we have had at least four major ice ages in the last 500 000 years. However, the last change happened naturally. Naturally occurring climate changes mainly happen because of the tilt of the Earth’s axis and the shape of its orbit around the sun. It has also happened because of the impact of large meteorites and even because of volcanic activity. Nowadays, it changes because of increased human activity. Mainly because of the rise of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Since the 1800s, human activity has been the main cause of climate change, mainly because of the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas). Earth’s average temperature has increased by about 1.1 degrees Celsius. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but in the past, when the temperature dropped by one or two degrees, we ended up in the “Little Ice Age”. Because this happened, people in northern Europe had to leave their homes to avoid starvation. And again, if you are saying that climate change is a natural thing, then you are not wrong. The difference is that the changes are happening ten times faster than they did after the last ice age.

Climate change in the past took more than hundreds of years, and because of that, wildlife was able to adapt to the changes. Now the changes occur very fast; for example, the seven warmest years of the 20th century were all in the 1990s. And since it all happens really fast, there is a possibility that the wildlife is not able to adapt to the new climate, and they might become instinctive.

How can we notice climate change? For example, you may have noticed that droughts are becoming longer and more extreme all over the world, and rainfalls are getting heavier. We are getting heavier rainfalls because the ocean temperatures are also rising. Also, tropical storms are becoming more severe, and therefore, people who live in that area might lose their homes due to these heavy rainfalls and storms, and they have to find a new place to live. You can even see the change in record temperatures; they are getting more extreme. For example, in the United States, there have been more records of increased high temperatures, while records of low temperature events have been decreasing. Also, scientists have noticed the change in glaciers; they are shrinking and plants are blooming sooner than usual. In addition, there are also more and more wildfires.

In conclusion, climate change is unavoidable, but the fact that it is happening so much faster is entirely caused by humans. In order to be more aware of the changes that are occurring on Earth, we need to share information about what is causing climate change and how we can slow it down.

Sources:
https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/12/whats-the-difference-between-climate-change-and-global-warming/
https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-6/
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/earths-changing-climate/