climate change

Definition of climate change

: significant and long-lasting change in the Earth's climate and weather patterns The half-tonne … turtles were thought to have died out 30,000 to 40,000 years ago because of climate change. — New Scientist especially, in current use : such change associated with global warming Concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and global climate change are renewed among scientists and the public with every new report about the possibility of melting icecaps and rising temperatures. — Randy Showstack Drought is a paleontological fact in the American West, but the latest desiccations have a new signature, and my region's climatologists, hydrologists, foresters, and water managers are nearly unanimous in their conviction that what we are seeing now is climate change, the anthropogenic kind, a consequence of too much CO2 and other greenhouse gases. — Kenneth Brower

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Dictionary Entries near climate change

climate change denial

climate change denier

climate-controlled

Statistics for climate change

Cite this Entry

“Climate change.” The Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc., https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/climate%20change. Accessed 26 January 2020.