climate change

noun

: 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

Examples of climate change in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The narrators of these books are painfully aware of anthropogenic climate change and runaway capitalism. —Katy Waldman, The New Yorker, 19 Aug. 2024

Set outdoors right next to the Auteuil Racecourse, at the very outskirts of Paris, the weather was tense and the elements created a fantastic backdrop that echoed some apocalyptic landscape and climate change. —Laia Garcia-Furtado, Vogue, 19 Aug. 2024

Careful work in the vineyards throughout the season can protect sensitive grapes from severe heat, which occurs more frequently because of climate change and unstable weather patterns. —Jeremy Repanich, Robb Report, 18 Aug. 2024

Advertisement For some parts of the globe, like South and East Asia, monsoons are predicted to become more intense because of climate change. —Ned Kleiner, Los Angeles Times, 17 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1854, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

climate change

noun

: significant and long-lasting change in the earth's climate and weather patterns

especially : such change associated with global warming