What is the Climate?

Global Climate Change Basics

Many people are not interested in science, so for them to define a climate would be a challenge. This is meant to introducee the idea of what a climate is, and provide examples of climate types as well as the people who study the climate. Knowing the basics can help you to understand the issues we are facing in the following decades.

Climate

Climate is an area's weather, but over a longer period of time. Weather is daily or weekly, but climate is decades. Climate accounts for all seasons all year and events that drive the weather. Climate is affected by the types of terrain (mountains, oceans, rivers) nearby. These factors create expected weather patterns (like how much rain or snow it gets) and its annual temperature. This is an area's climate.

Different regions of the world have different climates, based upon a number of factors: location from the equator, how high up it is, and how much water is around. Some areas go through cycles based on the state of pressure changes over the ocean. This can result in extremes like drought (a lack of rainfall), or heavy rain that results in flooding.

Examples of Climates

There are numerous regions of the world with their own climate, but there is a classification system that can be used to describe an area, known as the Koppen system. The climate is classified by its precipitation (rainfall) and annual temperatures and is rather complex. The Koppen classification system includes over a dozen types of climate, but some examples to help you understand climate are:

• Continental - boreal forest (cold), warm summer, or hot summer. Named this due to its type normally occuring on the interior land of continents.
• Dry - includes deserts, whether they are the hot kind you'd normally think of when you see the term, or the cold kind (Antarctica). It's defined largely on low precipitation.
• Mild (Temperate) - The average temperature doesn't go too high, it's generally not too cold.
• Polar/Alpine - Tundra. Low precipitation, but not a desert. The warmest month is rather cold, preventing much from growing there. This includes upper elevations on mountains. The other type under this system is Artica and land near it (Northern Canada, parts of Sweden, Iceland, Russia and Alaska).
• Tropical - Tropical climates include rainforests, but are generally warm all year round.

As noted, there are many different climates around the world.

Climate Science

Scientists who study the climate are known as Climatologists. They've discovered phenomena that change an area's climate and weather for a period by studying our planet. This type of science is akin to Meteorology but on a larger scale and studying areas for longer periods of time.

There are also Scientists who study ancient climates, which is helpful in learning how a climate has changed and what may have caused it to change. Because these scientists have studied Earth to the extent that they have, they can produce Climate Models that help predict how climates may have changed over time - from the past, present, to future. This aids us in making informed decisions, though science is something that is always trying to move forward in order to learn more about things.

No One Field of Science

Climatologists are of course making new discoveries about climate change, but also scientists in the fields of physics, oceanology, biology, meteorology, and others. Environmental science itself incorporates education from many fields because numerous factors are in play to produce rising temperatures. Solar radiation and its interaction with the atmosphere at various altitudes, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the ocean and its role in absorbing some of that are all things which must be considered.

Many experts publish work, research from each others' findings, and gradually reach new levels of understanding to effectively warn citizens and politicians of all nations about global climate change and its possible effects on our planet, living things, and society.