There is often a lot of confusion when we talk about weather versus climate, and the impact both have on our planet. Many people who deny climate change/global warming do so because they are confused between weather and climate. I had a teacher in high school who told my class that climate change wasn’t real, because the past few years had been abnormally cold in Tennessee, where we live. My teacher was mistaking climate with weather. Thankfully, he didn’t teach environmental science or astronomy.
Weather refers to the combination of winds, temperature, clouds, and pressure that make days hotter, cooler, clearer, cloudier, calmer and stormier than others. Weather is what we feel when we go outside, and it is easy to comprehend by human standards. Climate is large scale, and is difficult to determine based on personal experience. Climate is the average of weather over many many years, frequently around 30 years. We cannot experience changes in climate, as they occur gradually over decades, centuries, and millennia (Bennett et al., pg. 280).
Understanding the differences between weather and climate is vital when discussing environmental issues and the changes that are occurring on our planet. This intersection between environmental science and astronomy is necessary to fully understand and address human impact on the Earth.
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