10.4 The Climate Crisis

LO 10.4: Explain how the climate crisis contributes to social change.

Climate is the average weather conditions, including temperature and precipitation, over time in a geographic area. The climate could be tropical, dry, continental, polar, or temperate. Climate change refers to how the average weather changes over time (Dietz et al., 2020). Climate change is normal; however, there is consensus among scientists that climate change has increased rapidly due to human activities, which have made the Earth warmer (Cook et al., 2013; Lynas et al., 2021). Since 1850, the Earth’s temperature has increased by 2° F, and the ten warmest years have occurred between 2014 and 2023 (see Figure 10.6) (Lindsey & Dalhman, 2024).

The Earth is getting warmer because of human activities, like burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and large-scale livestock farming that contribute to the greenhouse effect (European Commission, 2025). The greenhouse effect results from greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide) trapping the heat from the sun and reflecting it on Earth rather than letting it escape to space (see Figure 10.7). As a result, the Earth is warmer than it otherwise would be.

A warmer climate contributes to more frequent extreme weather (or climate shocks), such as severe flooding, stronger hurricanes, droughts, heat waves, and cold waves. In 2023, approximately 500 people died in the United States, and 24,000 died globally because of climate disasters (Delforge et al., 2024; Smith, 2024). The United Nations recognizes climate change as “the defining crisis of our time” (2021), also known as a climate crisis.