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{{for|climate change now|Global warming}}

'''Climate change''' is the [[climate]] of [[Earth]] changing. The Earth's climate has been much hotter and colder than it is today.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last1=Rosen|first1=Julia|last2=Parshina-Kottas|first2=Yuliya|title=A climate change guide for kids |work=The New York Times|date=19 April 2021 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/18/climate/climate-change-future-kids.html|access-date=2021-05-29|issn=0362-4331}}</ref> Climate change this century and last century is sometimes called [[global warming]], because the average temperature on the surface has risen.<ref name=":0" /> The climate is now changing much faster than it has in the recent past. This is because people are putting heat-trapping [[greenhouse gas]]es in Earth's atmosphere. When people talk about climate change they are usually talking about the problem of human-caused [[global warming]], which is happening now (see [[global warming]] for more details). But the climate of the Earth has changed over not just thousands of years, but tens or hundreds of millions of years.<ref name="Alley" />

Sometimes, before there were people, the Earth's climate was much hotter than it is today. For example about 60 million years ago there were a lot of volcanoes, which burnt a lot of underground ''organic matter'' (squashed and [[Fossil|fossilized]] dead plants and animals like coal, gas and oil) so a lot of carbon dioxide and [[methane]] went up in the air like nowadays.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|last=Lee|first=Howard|date=2020-03-19|title=Sudden Ancient Global Warming Event Traced to Magma Flood|url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/sudden-ancient-global-warming-event-traced-to-magma-flood-20200319/|access-date=2022-08-01|website=Quanta Magazine|language=en}}</ref> This made the Earth hot enough for giant [[Tortoise|tortoises]] and [[Alligator|alligators]] to live in the [[Arctic]].<ref name=":1" />

At times in the past, the temperature was much cooler, with the last [[glaciation]] ending about ten thousand years ago.<ref name=":3">Imbrie J. & Imbrie, K.P. 1979. Ice ages: solving the mystery. Short Hills NJ: Enslow. ISBN 978-0-89490-015-0</ref><ref name=Alley>Alley R.B. 2000. ''The two-mile time machine: ice cores, abrupt climate change, and our future''. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-10296-1</ref> [[Ice age|Ice Ages]] are long times when the Earth got colder, and more ice froze at the [[North Pole|North]] and [[South Pole|South Poles]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|title=Problem Solving Activity: What Causes Ice Ages?|url=https://gml.noaa.gov/outreach/info_activities/pdfs/PSA_ice_ages.pdf}}</ref> Sometimes even the whole Earth was covered in ice, and was much colder than today.<ref name=":4">{{cite journal | author=Williams G.E. & Schmidt P.W. | title=Paleomagnetism of the Paleoproterozoic Gowganda and Lorrain formations, Ontario: low palaeolatitude for Huronian glaciation | journal=EPSL | year=1997 | volume=153 | issue=3 | pages=157–169 | url=http://www.cosis.net/abstracts/EAE03/08262/EAE03-J-08262.pdf | doi = 10.1016/S0012-821X(97)00181-7 | bibcode=1997E&PSL.153..157W}}</ref><ref name=":5">{{cite journal |author=Evans D.A; Beukes N.J. & Kirschvink J.L. |title=Low-latitude glaciation in the Palaeoproterozoic era |journal=Nature |volume=386 |issue=6622 |pages=262–6 |date=1997 |doi=10.1038/386262a0 |url=http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v386/n6622/abs/386262a0.html|bibcode = 1997Natur.386..262E |s2cid=4364730 }}</ref> There is no one reason why there are Ice Ages. Changes in the [[Earth's orbit]] around the Sun, and the Sun getting brighter or dimmer are events which do happen.<ref name=":2" /> Also how much the Earth is tilted compared to the Sun might make a difference.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|title=When and how did the ice age end? Could another one start?|url=https://www.amnh.org/explore/ology/earth/ask-a-scientist-about-our-environment/how-did-the-ice-age-end}}</ref> Another source of change is the activities of living things (see [[Great Oxygenation Event]] and [[Huronian glaciation]]).<ref name=":7">{{cite journal | author=Robert E. Kopp | display-authors=etal | title=The Paleoproterozoic snowball Earth: a climate disaster triggered by the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis | journal=Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. | year=2005 | volume=102 | issue=32 | pages=11131–6 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0504878102 | pmid=16061801 | pmc=1183582 | bibcode=2005PNAS..10211131K | doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=":8">{{cite journal |first=Nick |last=Lane |title=First breath: Earth's billion-year struggle for oxygen |journal=New Scientist |issue=2746 |date=2010 |doi= |url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527461.100-first-breath-earths-billionyear-struggle-for-oxygen.html }} A snowball period, c2.4–c2.0 billion years ago, triggered by the Great Oxygenation Event [http://ptc-cam.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-breath-earths-billion-year.html] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110106141826/http://ptc-cam.blogspot.com/2010/02/first-breath-earths-billion-year.html |date=2011-01-06 }}</ref>

== Hot Earth ==
Sometimes, before there were people, the Earth's climate was much hotter than it is today. For example about 60 million years ago there were a lot of volcanoes, which burnt a lot of underground ''organic matter'' (squashed and [[Fossil|fossilized]] dead plants and animals like coal, gas and oil) so a lot of carbon dioxide and [[methane]] went up in the air like nowadays.<ref name=":1" /> This made the Earth hot enough for giant [[Tortoise|tortoises]] and [[Alligator|alligators]] to live in the [[Arctic]].<ref name=":1" />

== Cold Earth ==

=== Glaciations ===
{{main|Glaciation}}
At times in the past, the temperature was much cooler, with the last [[glaciation]] ending about ten thousand years ago.<ref name=":3" /><ref name="Alley" />

=== Ice Ages ===
{{main|Ice Age}}
[[Ice age|Ice Ages]] are long times (much much longer than glaciations) when the Earth got colder, and more ice froze at the [[North Pole|North]] and [[South Pole|South Poles]].<ref name=":2" /> Sometimes even the whole Earth was covered in ice, and was much colder than today.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":5" /> There is no one reason why there are Ice Ages. Changes in the [[Earth's orbit]] around the Sun, and the Sun getting brighter or dimmer are events which do happen.<ref name=":2" /> Also how much the Earth is tilted compared to the Sun might make a difference.<ref name=":6" /> Another source of change is the activities of living things (see [[Great Oxygenation Event]] and [[Huronian glaciation]]).<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" />

== History of climate change studies ==
[[Joseph Fourier]] in 1824, Claude Poulliet in 1827 and 1838, Eunace Foote (1819{{ndash}}1888) in 1856, Irish physicist [[John Tyndall]] (1820–1893) in 1863 onwards,<ref>Tyndall J. 1863. ''Heat as a mode of motion''. London & New York.</ref> [[Svante Arrhenius]] in 1896, and Guy Stewart Callendar (1898–1964) discovered the importance of [[carbon dioxide]] (CO<sub>2</sub>) in climate change. Foote's work was not appreciated, and not widely known. Tyndall proved there were other greenhouse gases as well. [[Nils Gustaf Ekholm]] in 1901 invented the term.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Easterbrook|first1=Steve|title=Who first coined the term "Greenhouse Effect"?|url=http://www.easterbrook.ca/steve/2015/08/who-first-coined-the-term-greenhouse-effect/|website=Serendipity|date=18 August 2015 |accessdate=11 November 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Ekholm N |doi=10.1002/qj.49702711702 |title=On the variations of the climate of the geological and historical past and their causes |journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society |volume=27 |number=117 |pages=1–62 |year=1901|bibcode=1901QJRMS..27....1E }}</ref>

=== The Sun ===
{{main|Sun}}
The Sun gets a little bit hotter and colder every 11 years. This is called the 11-year [[sunspot]] cycle. The change is so small that scientists can barely measure how it affects the temperature of the Earth. If the Sun was causing the Earth to warm up, it would warm both the surface and high up in the air. But the air in the upper [[stratosphere]] is actually getting colder. Therefore the changes in the Sun are not causing the [[global warming]] which is happening now.

==Related pages==
*[[Ecology]]
*[[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]]

==References.==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Climate change| ]]

Climate change - Revision history

WikiDwarfBOT at 15:26, 18 October 2022