Title: Climate Chance

Climate is sometimes mistaken for weather. But climate is different from weather because it is measured
over a long period of time, whereas weather can change from day to day, or from year to year. The
climate of an area includes seasonal temperature and rainfall averages, and wind patterns. Different places
have different climates. A desert, for example, is referred to as an arid climate because little water falls, as
rain or snow, during the year. Other types of climate include tropical climates, which are hot and humid,
and
temperate climates, which have warm summers and cooler winters.

Climate change is the long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns in a place. Climate
change could refer to a particular location or the planet as a whole. Climate change may cause weather
patterns to be less predictable. These unexpected weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and
grow crops in regions that rely on farming because expected temperature and rainfall levels can no longer
be relied on. Climate change has also been connected with other damaging weather events such as more
frequent and more intense hurricanes, floods, downpours, and winter storms.
In polar regions, the warming global temperatures associated with climate change have meant ice sheets
and glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate from season to season. This contributes to sea levels rising
in different regions of the planet. Together with expanding ocean waters due to rising temperatures, the
resulting rise in sea level has begun to damage coastlines as a result of increased flooding and erosion.

Glenn Antony Milne, professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Ottawa,
explained that understanding the extent of this movement clarifies all studies of the planet’s crust.
“Sophie’s work is important because it is the first to show that recent mass loss of ice sheets and glaciers
causes 3D motion of the Earth’s [solid] surface that is greater in magnitude and spatial extent than
previously identified,” he said. “Also, one could look for this signal in regional and larger-scale global
navigation satellite system datasets to, in principle, produce improved constraints on the distribution of
ice mass fluctuations and/or solid Earth structure.”
 It is hardly surprising that rivers have been an important part of
human history: They provide food, freshwater, and fertile land for
growing crops. While water is essential to life, it can be a destructive
force too. When rivers flood, the effects can be catastrophic.

Flooding is one of the most common types of natural disaster, and the
results are often fatal. The Central China flood of 1931, for example,
was one of the worst flooding events in recorded history. The Yangtze
and Huai Rivers broke their banks, killing as many as several million
people. The aftermath was devastating; deadly waterborne diseases
like dysentery and cholera spread quickly, and those who survived
faced the threat of starvation.

The human cost of flooding can be large, but events like this have a
big impact on the natural world too, and the effects are not always
negative. In fact, some ecosystems rely on seasonal flooding to drive
ecological processes.