Climate change refers to the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. The change becomes clearly evident in, for example, average temperature observations, rising mean sea levels and, in the northern hemisphere, changes in the snow cover.
According to the most recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate change is unequivocal. Greenhouse gas concentration levels in the atmosphere have a major impact on the energy balance of the climate system. After the Industrial Revolution, anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased markedly, especially during the past decades. It is very likely that human action has played a role in the global warming. Concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide has a particularly strong effect on climate change.
Through global warming, climate change impacts the natural balance of various systems: sea levels will rise; extreme weather events and floods will be more frequent; different organism populations’ and plants’ habitats will alter; access to clean water will become more difficult; the fundamental preconditions of food production will change; and there will be shifts in the prevalence of certain diseases. All these factors will produce significant repercussions influencing communities, of which the most probable ones are, in international contexts, growing likelihood of crises and increasing climate refugeeism. The local impacts of climate change may be highly diverse.
