Glossary of Terms

The discussions around global warming and climate change have been ongoing for decades, and with it, a growing list of terms used to explain the causes, changes, and ways to mitigate and adapt. Below is a sprinkling of terms you may encounter during conversations on this topic.  

• Adaptation – Generally thought of as a more localized response to climate change; adaptation measures typically deal with climate change impacts as they arise. Adaptation is the adjustment that society or ecosystems make to prepare for, or adjust to climate change. Adaptation can include actions by individuals and communities, from a farmer planting more drought-resistant crops to a city ensuring that new coastal infrastructure can accommodate future sea level rise. Many governments and organizations across the United States and the world have already begun taking action to adapt to climate change. Together, adaptation, coupled with actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (mitigation), are essential to limiting the damages from future climate change. 1
• Anthropogenic climate change – Human-caused or human-induced climate change; An exacerbation of the greenhouse gas effect through the production of greenhouse gases emitted by human activities.
• Cap and trade – Cap and trade is a market-based policy tool for protecting human health and the environment by controlling large amounts of emissions from a group of sources. A cap and trade program first sets an aggressive cap, or maximum limit, on emissions. Sources covered by the program then receive authorizations to emit in the form of emissions allowances, with the total amount of allowances limited by the cap. Each source can design its own compliance strategy to meet the overall reduction requirement, including the sale or purchase of allowances, installation of pollution controls, and implementation of efficiency measures, among other options. 2
• Carbon dioxide – Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. Carbon dioxide is naturally present in the atmosphere as part of the Earth's carbon cycle (the natural circulation of carbon among the atmosphere, oceans, soil, plants, and animals). Human activities are altering the carbon cycle—both by adding more CO2 to the atmosphere and by influencing the ability of natural sinks, like forests, to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. While CO₂ emissions come from a variety of natural sources, human-related emissions are responsible for the increase that has occurred in the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. 3
• Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – Nontoxic, nonflammable chemicals containing atoms of carbon, chlorine, and fluorine. They are used in the manufacture of aerosol sprays, blowing agents for foams and packing materials, as solvents, and as refrigerants. Whereas CFCs are safe to use in most applications and are inert in the lower atmosphere, they do undergo significant reaction in the upper atmosphere or stratosphere. 4
• Climate change – Refers to any significant change in the measures of climate lasting for an extended period of time. In other words, climate change includes major changes in temperature, precipitation, or wind patterns, among other effects, that occur over several decades or longer. 5
• Climate change migrant/refugee – People who are forced to leave their homes and communities because of the effects of climate change. Climate refugees are a subset of a larger group of emigrants known as environmental refugees/migrants, who are forced to flee their homes because of natural disasters. With increasing climate change comes increasing climate variability, leading to more intense and frequent natural disaster events. Climate change migration also has socioeconomic and political consequences for the host country or region where climate refugees are settling.
• Climate modeling – The use of quantitative methods to simulate the interactions of the important drivers of climate, including atmosphere, oceans, land surface and ice. Modeling is used to study the dynamics of the Earth’s climate system as well as to develop projections of future climate.
• COP21 – 21st Conference of the Parties; An international conference at which a 2015 intergovernmental agreement was signed to limit carbon emissions.
• Coral reef bleaching – When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white. Warmer water temperatures can result in coral bleaching. When water is too warm, corals will expel the algae (zooxanthellae) living in their tissues causing the coral to turn completely white. This is called coral bleaching. When a coral bleaches, it is not dead. Corals can survive a bleaching event, but they are under more stress and are subject to mortality. 6
• Drift ice – Any sea ice other than fast ice, the latter being attached to a shoreline or other fixed object. Drift ice consists of floes, which are individual pieces of sea ice of at least 20 meters (66 feet) across.
• Fossil fuels – Non-renewable resources including oil, coal and natural gas, that formed when prehistoric plants and animals died and were gradually buried by layers of rock. Over millions of years, different types of fossil fuels formed -- depending on what combination of organic matter was present, how long it was buried and what temperature and pressure conditions existed as time passed. 7
• Geo-engineering – Also referred to as climate engineering, this is the deliberate and large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system with the aim of limiting climate change impacts. Climate engineering interventions generally fall into two broad categories of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and solar radiation management. Research has not shown a consensus on whether these interventions are effective, timely, affordable and safe. However, there is agreement among scientists that geo-engineering cannot substitute for climate change mitigation and any large-scale intervention should be used in tandem with other measures to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.
• GIS – Geographic Information System; System designed to capture, store, manipulate, analyze, manage and present all types of spatial or geographical data.
• Glacial calving – Also known as ice calving or iceberg calving is the breaking off of chunks of ice at the edge of a glacier. Warming, and thus expanding, oceans are causing greater waterline (base) melting of glaciers, increasing the rate of glacial calving.
• Glacial melting – Global warming leads to more rapid glacial melting in the polar caps, which will affect sea level rise.
• Global warming – Refers to the recent and ongoing rise in global average temperature near Earth's surface. It is caused mostly by increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Global warming is causing climate patterns to change. However, global warming itself represents only one aspect of climate change. 8
• Greenhouse gases – Carbon dioxide (CO₂), Methane (CH₄), Nitrous oxide (N₂O), and fluorinated gases, which include hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃). Fluorinated gases have no natural sources and only come from human-related activities.
• Greenhouse gas effect – Process by which greenhouse gases keep the Earth warm; Some of the energy, or heat, from the sun is absorbed by Earth’s land and water. To cool down, the Earth releases this energy back into space in the form of infrared radiation. Some of the radiation is trapped by greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, acting like a blanket around the planet. The process is natural and necessary to sustain life on Earth, however as more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere by human activities, the blanket becomes thicker and thus causes the Earth to warm even more. 9
• IPCC – Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Created by the United Nations, this organization is the leading international body that provides a scientific assessment of climate change.
• Land Subsidence – A gradual settling or sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface owing to subsurface movement of earth materials. Land subsidence occurs when large amounts of groundwater have been withdrawn from certain types of rocks, such as fine-grained sediments. The rock compacts because the water is partly responsible for holding the ground up. When the water is withdrawn, the rocks falls in on itself. You may not notice land subsidence too much because it can occur over large areas rather than in a small spot, like a sinkhole. 10 Land subsidence in coastal areas may increase the relative level of sea level rise, thus conflating the effects of climate change.
• LiDAR – A surveying technology that measures distance by illuminating a target with a laser light. Thought by some to be an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging, the term was actually created as a portmanteau of “light” and “radar.” The technology is often used to create maps.
• Mitigation – Considered a more globalized, higher-level response to lessening the effects of climate change. Refers to efforts to reduce or prevent emission of greenhouse gases. Mitigation can mean using new technologies and renewable energies, making older equipment more energy efficient, or changing management practices or consumer behavior. It can be as complex as a plan for a new city, or as a simple as improvements to a cook stove design. Efforts underway around the world range from high-tech subway systems to bicycling paths and walkways. Protecting natural carbon sinks like forests and oceans, or creating new sinks through silviculture or green agriculture are also elements of mitigation. Together, mitigation, coupled with climate change adaptation are essential to combating climate change impacts. 11
• Ocean acidification – The ongoing decrease in the pH levels of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. An estimate 30-40% of the carbon dioxide from human-activity released into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. Much of the warming on the planet is stored in the world’s oceans and bodies of water.
• Pack ice – Drift ice that is driven together into a large single mass. The two major ice packs are the Arctic ice pack and the Antarctic ice pack.
• Parts per million (PPM) – A ratio of two quantities of the same unit that is often used to describe the ratio of carbon dioxide atoms to all other kinds of atoms. Over the last 800,000 years, the average global level of carbon dioxide has been 180-280 ppm. For the first time in recorded history, the global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere recently surpassed 400 ppm. 12
• Permafrost – A thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions. A warming climate contributes to melting permafrost, which has consequences for ecosystems.
• Photovoltaics (PV) – A method of converting solar energy into direct current electricity. The direct conversion of light into electricity at the atomic level. Used on solar panels. 13
• Renewable energy sources – Generally defined as energy that is collected from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Wind, solar and biomass are three emerging renewable energy sources.
• Resilience – The ability of a system or individual to cope with change. Climate resilience can be defined as the capacity for a socio-ecological system to absorb external stresses imposed upon it by climate change while still maintaining its usual functioning, and the capacity to adapt, reorganize and evolve into a more sustainable system, thus leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts or shocks to its system.
• Saltwater intrusion – The movement of saline water, or saltwater, into freshwater aquifers which can lead to contamination of water sources and other consequences; occurs naturally to some degree in most coastal aquifers. The unique vulnerability of Florida’s geology of porous limestone and a shallow water table increases the likelihood of greater saltwater intrusion into local aquifers with increasing climate change.
• Sea-level rise – A consequence of global warming and climate change. Current rates of sea-level rise are expected to increase as a result both of thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of most mountain glaciers and partial melting of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice caps. Consequences include loss of coastal wetlands and barrier islands, and a greater risk of flooding in coastal communities. 14
• Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact (SFRCC) – A four-county (Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe and Palm Beach) regional governance initiative in South Florida that aims to coordinate mitigation and adaptation strategies across county lines. 15
• Sustainability – The capacity of a system to endure. Sustainability is often thought of in terms of the endurance of four interconnected spheres including ecology, economics, politics and culture in the face of climate change.
• Vector-borne disease – Vectors are living organisms that can transmit infectious diseases between humans or from animals to humans. Many of these vectors are bloodsucking insects, such as mosquitoes, ticks, and flies, which ingest disease-producing microorganisms during a blood meal from an infected host (human or animal) and later inject it into a new host during their subsequent blood meal. Climate change is having a significant impact on disease transmission. With a changing climate, some diseases, such as dengue, chikungunya and West Nile virus, are emerging in countries and regions of countries where they were previously unknown. 16

 

1. United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/adaptation/
2. EPA https://www3.epa.gov/captrade/basic-info.html
3. EPA https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/co2.html
4. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/hats/publictn/elkins/cfcs.html
5. EPA https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/
6. NOAA https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral_bleach.html
7. United States Department of Energy (DOE) https://energy.gov/science-innovation/energy-sources/fossil
8. EPA https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/basics/
9. EPA https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/today/greenhouse-effect.html
10. United States Geological Survey (USGS) https://water.usgs.gov/edu/earthgwlandsubside.html
11. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) https://www.unep.org/climatechange/mitigation/
12. NOAA https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/global.html#global_data
13. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2002/solarcells/
14. Natural Resources Defense Council https://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/fcons/fcons4.asp
15. Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact https://www.southeastfloridaclimatecompact.org/who-we-are/
16. World Health Organization (WHO) https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs387/en/