Change of climate

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical

distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to

millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions, or in

the distribution of weather around the average conditions (i.e., more or

fewer extreme weather events). Climate change is caused by factors that

include oceanic processes (such as oceanic circulation), variations in solar

radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics and volcanic eruptions, and

human-induced alterations of the natural world; these latter effects are

currently causing global warming, and "climate change" is often used to

describe human-specific impacts.