New York's Tropical December Days: Climate Change or El Nino?
- Weather, climate and climate change are not the same thing
- `Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get'
Pedestrians walk on the sidewalk past winter hats for sale in New York, on Dec. 15.
Photographer: Mark Lennihan/AP PhotoThis article is for subscribers only.
After a year that has seen a record number of powerful typhoons and hurricanes, unprecedented snow in Boston and what will probably be a new high for global warmth, the terms weather, climate and climate change are being thrown around freely. So what’s actually the difference?
That’s a timely question considering that the Paris conference on climate change wrapped up this week with an agreement aimed at capping worldwide temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.