Weather refers to atmospheric conditions that occur locally over short periods of time—from minutes to hours or days. Familiar examples include rain, snow, clouds, winds, floods or thunderstorms. …     Climate, on the other hand, refers to the long-term regional or even global average of temperature, humidity and rainfall patterns over seasons, years or decades.   

Shaftel, H. ed.(Last updated 2021, September 22). Overview:  Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change.  NASA: Global Climate Change. https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/?fbclid=IwAR3OqndGkTxu6JuM5sHPsBBOnbs29r2zqo78ECEPuBr34aeEzTo4aYlfcAE 

Climate change is a long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed effects that are synonymous with the term.

Changes observed in Earth’s climate since the early 20th century are primarily driven by human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere, raising Earth’s average surface temperature. These human-produced temperature increases are commonly referred to as global warming. Natural processes can also contribute to climate change, including internal variability (e.g., cyclical ocean patterns like El Niño, La Niña and the Pacific Decadal Oscillation) and external forcings (e.g., volcanic activity, changes in the Sun’s energy output, variations in Earth’s orbit).

Climate data records provide evidence of climate change key indicators, such as global land and ocean temperature increases; rising sea levels; ice loss at Earth’s poles and in mountain glaciers; frequency and severity changes in extreme weather such as hurricanes, heatwaves, wildfires, droughts, floods and precipitation; and cloud and vegetation cover changes, to name but a few.

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term is frequently used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both human- and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. It is most commonly measured as the average increase in Earth’s global surface temperature…. It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.  

Shaftel, H. ed.(Last updated 2021, September 22). Overview:  Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change.  NASA: Global Climate Change. https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/?fbclid=IwAR3OqndGkTxu6JuM5sHPsBBOnbs29r2zqo78ECEPuBr34aeEzTo4aYlfcAE 

 – a situation characterized by the threat of highly dangerous, irreversible changes to the global climate.

Oxford Languages Google Dictionary.(n.d.) Climate Crisis. Retrieved September 13, 2021 from https://www.google.com/search?q=climate+crisis+definition&aff=test123