climate change
noun
mass noun
- the change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards, attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels气候变化（由于矿物燃料的使用导致大气层中二氧化碳含量增加, 致使20世纪中期至末期以来全球气候形式的变化变得越明显）。
WORD TRENDS
In the early 2000s global warming was the buzzword of the environmentally minded, but it is apparently being overhauled by climate change. Although many people use the two terms interchangeably, there are important differences. Global warming describes a gradual heating up of the earth's atmosphere, whereas climate change can cover many other changes beyond an increase in temperature - such as alterations in precipitation patterns and sea level, and the increasing frequency of severe weather events. Climate change can also be seen as a less loaded and more politically neutral term, and is generally preferred by scientists, as many do not see rising temperature as the single most important effect of the changing climate. The Oxford English Corpus data from the year 2009 contains twice as many examples of climate change as global warming.