Climate language
Below is a list of terms that are often used by climate scientists and environmental journalists. Hopefully, this list will help you better understand the science behind present-day climate change and ecological breakdown. I’m not a scientist and am still learning, but I’ll do my best to describe these terms in understandable and accessible ways.
Climate Science
Climate Change: Long-term changes in Earth's climate. Historically, these changes occurred as part of natural cycles, but today's climate change is primarily caused by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, which release heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Global warming: The long-term increase in Earth's surface temperature. Historically, warming and cooling occurred because of natural factors including changes solar energy and volcanic activity. Today's warming is caused primarily by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas, along with the loss of forests and other ecosystems that absorb and store carbon.
Greenhouse Gases: Any atmospheric gas that traps heat. This includes carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane, and nitrous oxide. Burning coal, oil, and natural gas have increased atmospheric CO₂ concentrations from about 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution to more than 430 ppm today. This rapid increase is driving global warming and increasing the risks of extreme weather, ecosystem collapse, sea level rise, and conditions that may make some regions increasingly difficult for humans and wildlife to inhabit.
Carbon Dioxide (CO₂): Carbon dioxide is a heat-trapping greenhouse gas released through activities such as burning coal, oil, and natural gas for electricity, transportation, heating, and industrial processes. It is also released through deforestation, wildfires, and other land-use changes. Unlike many pollutants, carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for centuries, continuing to influence Earth's climate long after it is emitted.
Methane (CH₄): Methane is another powerful heat-trapping greenhouse gas released through burning fossil fuel burning, extracting fossil fuels, livestock farming, landfills, and agriculture. Methane stays in the atmosphere for about 12 years and then breaks down into carbon dioxide and water vapor. Methane is estimated to have more than 80 times the warming impact of carbon dioxide.
Wet-bulb temperatures: A measurement that combines high temperatures with high humidity to determine how effectively the human body can cool itself. As humidity rises, sweat evaporates more slowly. A wet bulb temperature exceeding 86°F (30°C) threatens human safety. 95°F (35°C) marks the absolute theoretical limit of human survival, regardless of health, shade, or hydration. Here’s a calculator to determine your local wet bulb temperature.
Albedo: Albedo refers to the ability of a surface to reflect sunlight. Bright surfaces like snow and ice reflect a large amount of sunlight back into space, helping to cool the planet. As global warming causes ice sheets and glaciers to melt, darker ocean and land surfaces are exposed, absorbing more sunlight and increasing warming.
Climate sensitivity: Climate sensitivity describes how much Earth's average temperature will increase in response to rising greenhouse gas concentrations. Some recent research shows that climate sensitivity is higher than previously projected, meaning that global warming and resulting ecological breakdown will happen more quickly than climate and earth scientists expected.
Feedback loops: Feedback loops are natural processes that either amplify global warming or reverse global warming. They can occur through natural processes, human activities, or interactions between the two.
A positive feedback loop amplifies warming. For example, as global temperatures rise, ice melts, exposing darker ocean and land surfaces that absorb more sunlight. This additional heat causes further warming and more ice melt.
A negative feedback loop slows or counteracts global warming and helps stabilize temperatures. One example of negative feedback is increased plant growth resulting from higher carbon dioxide concentrations, allowing plants to remove additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Tipping points: Tipping points are critical environmental thresholds that, once crossed, can trigger self-reinforcing changes that are difficult or impossible to reverse. Key tipping points include:
-
Coral reef die-off. Coral reefs are clusters of tiny animals with hard calcium shells. They provide shelter and food for 25% of marine life. As oceans warm and absorb excess CO₂ (becoming more acidic), coral reefs undergo mass bleaching and die. This threatens the collapse of marine ecosystems, widespread fishery failures, and severe coastal erosion.
Glacial melt and ice sheet disintegration. Because of global warming, glaciers and ice sheets are melting at an alarming rate. This will result in sea level rise that threatens coastal infrastructure and the habitability of coastal areas.
Monsoon shifts. As global temperatures rise, monsoons are seasonal changes in wind direction that cause a shift from a dry season to a rainy season. They’re driven by temperature differences between land and sea.
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC): The AMOC is a major system of ocean currents that helps regulate Earth's climate. Scientists are concerned that continued global warming may weaken or eventually collapse the system. A collapse would alter weather patterns, increase sea level rise along parts of the U.S. East Coast, disrupt tropical rainfall, and threaten food production in many regions.
-
Amazon and Boreal Forest die-off. Droughts and deforestation are threatening the health and survival of the Amazon rain forest. The Amazon is a critical carbon sink and home to insects, animals, and plant species that we rely on for survival. The boreal forests of Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, and Russia are also increasingly threatened by wildfires, drought, insect outbreaks, and rising temperatures. As these forests decline, they absorb less carbon and may begin releasing more carbon than they store, further accelerating climate change.
Thawing permafrost. As global warming caused by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas accelerates, permafrost is beginning to melt. Carbon and methane that are stored within the permafrost are being released into the atmosphere, further accelerating global warming.
Aerosols: Aerosols are tiny solid particles or liquid droplets suspended in the atmosphere.and can be natural, human-made, or produced by industrial processes. Aerosols from fossil fuel pollution have a temporary cooling effect that partially masks greenhouse warming. It’s estimated that aerosols are masking between 0.5°C to 1.1°C of warming.
Radiative forcing: The net imbalance between incoming solar energy absorbed by the Earth and the thermal energy radiated back into space.
Positive forcing (> 0): More energy is entering the system than is leaving, causing the planet to warm. This is primarily driven by greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane that trap outgoing heat.
Negative Forcing (< 0): More energy is leaving the system than entering, causing the planet to cool. This is often driven by volcanic ash or industrial aerosols that reflect sunlight back into space.
Carbon and Energy
Carbon sequestration: Drawing carbon out of the atmosphere, which occurs naturally when trees and oceans absorb and store carbon dioxide. Carbon can also be removed through technologies such as carbon capture and storage.
Carbon sink: Ecosystems that absorb more carbon than they release. This includes wetlands, soil, and oceans. However, as oceans warm, they become less effective at absorbing carbon dioxide because warmer water holds less dissolved gas. Climate change may also disrupt ecosystems that store carbon, potentially reducing their ability to effectively store carbon.
Decarbonization: The process of reducing or eliminating carbon emissions from electricity generation, transportation, buildings, industry, and other sectors of society.
Electrification: Replacing fossil fuel-powered technologies with electric alternatives. This includes switching from oil or gas heating systems to electric heat pumps and replacing gas-powered appliances with electric options. As electricity grids increasingly transition to renewable energy sources, electrification can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from homes, businesses, transportation, and industry.
Fossil Fuels: Finite energy sources like oil, coal, and natural gas that were formed over millions of years from the remains of plants and organisms. When they’re burned, they release heat-trapping gasses like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere.
Net zero: When burning fossil fuels is reduced as much as possible and any remaining, unavoidable emissions are canceled out by removing an equivalent amount of carbon from the atmosphere through carbon sinks or advanced tech.
Carbon neutral: Producing carbon emissions while removing or offsetting an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide through activities such as restoring forests, protecting carbon sinks, or using carbon removal technologies.
Carbon negative: Removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is emitted.
Carbon positive: Releasing more carbon into the atmosphere than is removed. The scientific term for business as usual.
Carbon offsets: The intentional removal of carbon from the atmosphere that is equal to the amount of carbon burned and released into the atmosphere. People who travel in planes may offset these emissions by subsequently investing in planting trees that are intended to remove an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide over time. Many activists and scientists worry that carbon offsets will slow the transition away from coal, oil, and natural gas.
Solutions to Climate Change
Renewable energy (clean energy): Fossil fuels are finite and release dangerous heat-trapping gases that threaten our health and safety. Renewable energy is generated from naturally replenished sources including sunlight, wind, flowing water, and geothermal heat. Unlike fossil fuels, renewable energy produces little or no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. Expanding renewable energy reduces air pollution, slows climate change, and supports sustainable jobs and industries.
Energy efficiency: Using less energy to perform the same task or provide the same service. LED light bulbs, well-insulated buildings, Energy Star appliances, and electric heat pumps, all reduce energy consumption while maintaining or improving performance. Improving energy efficiency lowers greenhouse gas emissions and reduces energy costs.
Adaptation: How communities and societies can adapt to higher temperatures, sea level rise, and other environmental and climate changes that threaten our infrastructure, health, safety, and survival. Adaptation includes building elevated sea walls to protect against sea level rise and subsequent flooding and planting crops that are heat-resistant.
Mitigation: Climate change mitigation includes any activity that reduces greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This includes transitioning to renewable sources of energy, driving electric vehicles, protecting carbon sinks, reforestation, and regenerative agriculture.
Nature-based solutions: Any activity that protects and restores ecosystems in order to reverse human-caused climate change, protect crops and biodiversity, store carbon, and reduce climate risks.
Geoengineering: Large-scale technologies designed to reduce global warming and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Geoengineering approaches are largely untested and may carry significant environmental and health risks. They remain the subject of ongoing scientific research and debate. One example of geoengineering is Stratospheric Aerosol Injection - spraying reflective particles, like sulfur dioxide, into the upper atmosphere to mimic the cooling effect of volcanic eruptions.
Ecological breakdown
Biodiversity: The variety of species and life on Earth, including the wide array of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, and other organisms. Biodiversity supports healthy ecosystems that provide essential benefits for humanity, including clean water, fertile soil, pollination, food, medicine, and climate regulation.
Sixth mass extinction: Previous mass extinctions were caused by natural events such as asteroid impacts and volcanic activity. The sixth mass extinction is the first known extinction primarily caused by human activities - habitat destruction, pollution, over-exploitation of wildlife, and climate change.
Solutions to Ecological Breakdown
Rewilding: The process of restoring ecosystems by supporting native species, protecting habitats, and allowing natural ecological processes to recover. Rewilding can increase biodiversity, improve ecosystem health, and help ecosystems store more carbon.
Ecological restoration: The process of assisting the recovery of damaged or degraded ecosystems. Restoration efforts may include restoring forests, wetlands, rivers, grasslands, and other habitats to improve biodiversity, ecosystem function, and resilience to climate change.
Ecosystem services: The benefits that healthy ecosystems provide to humans and other species. These include clean air and water, pollination, flood protection, soil health, food production, carbon storage, and climate regulation.
More reading
