"We hear the term “climate” every day, so it is worth thinking about what we actually mean by it. Obviously, “climate” is not the same as weather. The climate is one of Earth’s fundamental life support systems, one that determines whether or not we humans, and millions of other species, are able to live on this planet. It is generated by four components: the atmosphere (the air we breathe); the hydrosphere (the planet’s water); the cryosphere (the ice sheet and glaciers); the biosphere (the planet’s plants and animals). By now, our activities had started to modify every one of these components. Our emissions of CO2 had started to modify our atmosphere. Our increasing water use had started to modify our hydrosphere. Rising atmospheric and sea-surface temperatures had started to modify the cryosphere, most notably in the unexpected shrinking of the Arctic and Greenland ice sheets. Our increasing use of land, for agriculture, cities, roads, mining—as well as all the pollution we were creating—had started to modify our biosphere. Or, to put it another way: We had started to change our climate."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
, 10 Billion (2013)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Global_warming
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Related Quotes
"We need to address climate change, we need to limit the temperature rise globally to the maximum extent but we cannot…"
"We were warned plenty that we were creating a disaster in the only atmosphere we’ve got, and we kept on doing it. Now…"
"We don't have much time left. We are moving towards temperature increases of around two degrees Celsius, which is goi…"
"The lie is that if we address the climate crisis, we will also solve the biodiversity crisis."
"Is humankind itself hastening its own end? Man has, for instance, been burning carbon-containing fuel — wood, coal, o…"
"When we look at the rising ocean temperatures, rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and so on, we know that they …"
"When I was a boy in the 1900s, the carbon dioxide level was still below 300 parts per million. This year, it reached …"
"Right now we are facing a man-made disaster of global scale, our greatest threat in thousands of years: climate chang…"
"One very simple truth about Global Warming is this; that it will spare nobody, however rich, mighty and powerful we t…"
"I'm agnostic as to the causes. All I know is there is water where there once was ice."