Global Warming vs. Climate Change: What's the Difference?
Read the comparison below, or explore it visually. Create a visual lesson comparing global warming and climate change using available credits or plan allowance.
They're closely linked but not the same. Global warming refers specifically to the long-term rise in Earth's average temperature. Climate change is the broader term — it covers global warming plus all the knock-on shifts it drives: changing rainfall, rising seas, melting ice, and more extreme weather. Global warming is the cause; climate change is the bigger picture.
At a glance
| Global Warming | Climate Change | |
|---|---|---|
| What it means | Rise in average global temperature | Broad, long-term shifts in climate |
| Scope | Specifically temperature | Temperature + weather, seas, ice |
| Relationship | A driver / cause | The wider set of effects |
| Driven by | Greenhouse gases trapping heat | Mostly global warming |
| Example | Earth ~1.1°C warmer than the 1900s | Stronger storms, droughts, rising seas |
Which should you use?
Use 'global warming' when you mean specifically the rise in average temperature caused by greenhouse gases.
Use 'climate change' when you mean the full range of long-term changes — in weather patterns, sea level, ice, and ecosystems — that the warming sets off.