Scientific Overview

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns when that change lasts for an extended period of time: from millions of years ago, to decades and the present day.

Climate change may refer to a change in average weather conditions, or in the time variation of weather within the context of longer-term average conditions.

Climate change is caused by factors such as biotic processes, variations in solar radiation received by Earth, plate tectonics, and volcanic eruptions.

Certain human activities have been identified as primary causes of ongoing climate change, often referred to as global warming.

Scientists actively work to understand past and future climate by using observations and theoretical models. A climate record—extending deep into the Earth's past—has been assembled, and continues to be built up, based on geological evidence from borehole temperature profiles, cores removed from deep accumulations of ice, floral and faunal records, glacial and periglacial processes, stable-isotope and other analyses of sediment layers, and records of past sea levels. More recent data are provided by the instrumental record. General circulation models, based on the physical sciences, are often used in theoretical approaches to match past climate data, make future projections, and link causes and effects in climate change.

Alongside western scientific methods is the keen observations of Inuit residents: traditional hunters and fishermen, environmental monitors, wildlife officers and Elders. Their knowledge of sila, the circumpolar land, water, ice, weather and flora and fauna, provides vital information and traditional approaches to document changes as well as adaptations required to mitigate further impacts and eco-balance.