View source for Talk:Climate change

==Review by Job Dronkers (January 2013)==

The first definition makes no distinction between climate change attributable to human activities altering the atmospheric composition, and climate variability attributable to natural causes.
A more precise formulation of this first definition of climate change is <ref>IPCC (2011) Summary for Policymakers. In: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation. Eds.: Field, C. B., Barros, V., Stocker, T.F., Qin, D., Dokken, D., Ebi, K.L., Mastrandrea, M. D., Mach, K. J., Plattner, G.-K., Allen, S. K., Tignor, M. and P. M. Midgley. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA</ref>:A change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., by using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or the variability of its properties and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. Climate change may be due to natural internal processes or external forcings, or to persistent anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.


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