FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
General questions
Yes and no. The ozone hole is not causing global warming, but it is affecting atmospheric circulation.
“Global warming” refers to the long-term warming of the planet. “Climate change” encompasses global warming but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet, including rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower/plant blooming times.
Yes, the vast majority of actively publishing climate scientists – 97 percent – agree that humans are causing global warming and climate change.
Climate Change Canada’s provides one of the most comprehensive, resourceful and informative platforms on Climate Change in Canada.
It’s role, through it’s multiple initiatives is to raise awareness through several good cause action drives, and make a difference in people’s lives and our climate footprint with an aim for netzero by 2035.
Climate Change Canada presents the opportunity through scientists, media, businesses, speakers and educators and the general public to inquire, learn and discover how you can make a difference via it’s expanding virtual platform from coast to coast to coast, to allow us all to make a difference, whether it’s the important goal of reaching netzero, giving to your local food bank as more and more people are battling homelessness and hunger from bad storms and flooding due to climate change.
From thanking our front-line workers who have kept Canadians and businesses afloat through these difficult times, to honouring our courageous health care providers in Long Term Care homes taking care of our brave elderly and the ill in our community hospitals. Climate Change Canada praises and honours all of you!
Make a Difference
Learn more about your carbon emissions at ClimateChangeCanada.ca
- Carpool or use mass transit
- Plan and combine trips
- Drive more efficiently
- Switch to “green power.” Switch to electricity generated by energy sources with low or no routine emissions of carbon dioxide.
Climate Change Canada role is also to connect with the public, researchers, policymakers and to support strategic decisions. However, Climate Change Canada does not make particular climate policies and is not currently affiliated or partnered with any government agency at this time. If things change in that respect, we will make that information available on our platform footer and dedicate a page to that effect … so stay tuned.
The greenhouse effect is the way in which heat is trapped close to Earth’s surface by “greenhouse gases.”
Ice cores are scientists’ best source for historical climate data. Other tools for learning about Earth’s ancient atmosphere include growth rings in trees, which keep a rough record of each growing season’s temperature, moisture and cloudiness going back about 2,000 years. Corals also form growth rings that provide information about temperature and nutrients in the tropical ocean. Other proxies, such as benthic cores, extend our knowledge of past climate back about a billion years.
No. The Sun can influence Earth’s climate, but it isn’t responsible for the warming trend we’ve seen in recent decades.
“Weather” refers to the more local changes in the climate we see around us, on short timescales from minutes to hours, to days to weeks. Examples are familiar – rain, snow, clouds, winds, thunderstorms, sleet, and hail.
“Climate” refers to longer-term averages (which may be regional or global) and can be thought of as the weather averaged over several decades.
Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries.
Unless otherwise noted, you may use our content and imagery without permission, as long as you provide due credit.
Volcanic eruptions are often discussed in relation to climate change because they release CO2 (and other gases) into our atmosphere. However, human contributions to the carbon cycle are more than 100 times those from all the volcanoes in the world – combined.
In comparison, while volcanic eruptions do cause an increase in atmospheric CO2, human activities emit a Mount St. Helens-sized eruption of CO2 every 2.5 hours and a Mount Pinatubo-sized eruption of CO2 twice daily.
While urban areas are warmer than surrounding rural areas, the urban heat island effect has had little to no effect on our warming world, because scientists have accounted for it in their measurements.
No. Even if the amount of radiation coming from the Sun were to decrease as it has before, it would not significantly affect the global warming coming from long-lived, human-emitted greenhouse gases. Further, given our greenhouse gas emissions to date and those expected to come, the evidence points to the next “ice age” being averted altogether.
Yes, evidence shows warming from 1998 to the present, with 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020 being the hottest years globally since 1880.
Data from satellites, which measured Earth’s gravity field, show that the land ice sheets in both Antarctica and Greenland have been losing mass (ice) since 2002.
Since satellites technically measure neither temperature nor the surface (where people live), it’s safe to say that ground thermometers are more accurate than satellite measurements.
On average, most of Earth’s Mountain glaciers are continuing to melt.
Arctic sea ice volume and extent have been declining since record-keeping began in the late 1970s and prior. Antarctic sea ice extent is currently below the long-term average of prior decades since 1979.
Yes, the ocean is continuing to warm. Notably, all ocean basins have been experiencing significant warming since 1998, with more heat being transferred deeper into the ocean since 1990.
The amount of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed by Earth’s life forms, ocean, and other “sinks” might decrease as time goes by. Natural carbon sinks (the carbon absorbers, as opposed to “sources,” which release carbon) on land and in the ocean have become less effective over time. That is, natural sinks that removed about 60% of annual human-caused CO2 emissions in 1959 now remove about 55% today.
Surface mass balance is the difference between the precipitation (rain and snow) that has accumulated on the upper surfaces of glaciers and ice sheets and what has been lost due to melt and eventual runoff and evaporation.
Total mass balance is the difference between total mass gains and total mass losses, which includes ice lost in the lower margins due to calving and thinning from contact with warm ocean waters.
How global temperatures are studied
No. To understand why not, imagine you’re a nurse checking a patient’s chart. You find the following temperature readings (Fahrenheit) for the last few hours: 99.2, 99.8, 1000, 101.4. You’d know immediately that the third number was a mistake. To make a realistic assessment of the patient’s condition, you’d have to either adjust it or throw it out.
Not yet. They have to be adjusted to account for all the changes that happen over time. Read on to learn more about those changes.
Climate researchers use every possible direct and indirect measurement to study the full history of Earth’s climate, from the latest satellite observations to samples of prehistoric ice extracted from glaciers.
Modern observations mostly come from weather stations, weather balloons, radars, ships and buoys, and satellites.
Major climate research organizations worldwide have developed mathematically rigorous, peer-reviewed data-processing methods to identify and compensate for changes in observing conditions.
No, the original records are preserved and are available at no cost online. You can access the National Climatic Data Center’s and global records here.
Almost half of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) corrected data are cooler than the original records. NOAA’s corrections of temperatures over the oceans — done to compensate for changes in methods of observing the temperature of water at the surface of the ocean — reduced the warming trend in global temperature.
Less frequently asked, but interesting
Contrary to common belief, its cow belching due to enteric fermentation.
Melting land ice, like mountain glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, will change Earth’s rotation only if the meltwater flows into the ocean. For example, if the Greenland ice sheet were to completely melt and the meltwater were to completely flow into the ocean, then global sea level would rise by about seven meters (23 feet) and Earth would rotate more slowly, with the length of the day becoming longer than it is today, by about 2 milliseconds.
Melting sea ice, such as the Arctic ice cap, does not change sea level because the ice displaces its volume and, hence, does not change Earth’s rotation.
- Please help to raise awareness in your community and across the country by donating to ClimateChangeCanada.ca so that we can expand our reach through our marketing awareness campaign.
Every person donating over $50 will receive our personalized digital seal of praise and all donations of $100 or more will also receive a glass framed personalized “Certificate of Appreciation and the Fight Against Climate Change” See sample below: