Does Global Warming Mean Climate Change? NASA Scientist Explains

Climate change and global warming are often used synonymously by people, however, they are not same thing. Let's explore the difference between these two terms.

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The words, global warming and climate change are generally used synonymously by many people though they are related but not the same. NASA scientist explained how both global warming and climate change differ from one another.

Global warming

According to NASA atmospheric scientist Dr Yolanda Shea, global warming stands for the increase in the average surface temperature of Earth. On a global scale, the earth's surface is heating up due to the increased amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases that have been released by humans burning fossil fuels that lead to global warming.

Climate Change

Climate change on the other hand is a general term that refers to long-term changes in the environment over decades or centuries. The term climate change includes all types of changes in typical weather climate that can be observed from a regional to global scale. Melting of glaciers, increase in wildfires, droughts and increase in surface temperature are the indications of climate change.

World Entering In 'Global Boiling' Era

NASA and various other research organizations are extensively studying global warming and climate change as we see. Recently, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced that the world has entered into the "global boiling" era from global warming.

Speaking at UN Headquarters, the Secretary-General warned that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived.” Although climate change is evident, “we can still stop the worst,” he said. “But to do so we must turn a year of burning heat into a year of burning ambition.”