Climate

With climate change becoming an important and highly debated topic in recent years, it seems that the definition of climate has been skewed to best fit each individual’s opinion on what is actually happening with Earth’s climate currently. The exact definition of climate as defined by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) is “a measure of the average pattern of variation in temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, precipitation, atmospheric particle count and other variables in a given region over long periods of time”, or more simply, the slowly varying aspects of the atmosphere–hydrosphere–land surface system. In order to fully understand Earth’s climate, and the effects it has on us, it is this definition that must be used and understood to define “Climate”.

Thinking about climate as whole, one will realize that the American Meteorological Societies’ definition is the most accurate and precise definition, and can be used as a tool to develop an understanding of climate change. The definition is very specific in that includes every system that is part of Earth’s climate, as well as putting them in combined, and temporal perspective. Climate is a very broad and complex term, so it requires such a long and specific definition in order to clear up any confusion of what climate really is. While this is the official denotation of “climate”, there are many connotations that many have used to understand or explain climate in a simpler, and more conversational manner. Many of these connotations only a define part of the climate, or define climate in a way that can help someone make their argument more viable or persuasive. These misconceptions mislead many into thinking that climate is something much different from what it...

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... systems over a long period of time. Although the term “weather” does give a temporal perspective, it is one that is over a short time and is not an “average” of all these systems over that time. To fully understand climate this long-term perspective must be in place, and defining climate as “weather” does not fit the bill.

By examining these different connotations of “climate”, the confusion surrounding the term begins to fade. The audience will see that most of these connotations are greatly flawed and cannot be used to fully describe such a complex term. The true denotation was also revealed in order to compare these misconceptions to how climate should really be defined, and discussed. Climate change is a very serious issue that faces the Earth today, and without understanding Earth’s dynamic climate, there will be no hope of understanding climate change itself.