The science of climate change

What is the difference between climate change and global warming? What distinguishes climate from weather? external pageProf. Winston Chowcall_made from Cooling Singapore answers and explains the big questions surrounding the science of climate change.  

"Looking at just temperature is very restrictive" says Prof. Winston Chow when asked about why the term climate change is used more widely now instead of global warming. Prof. Chow goes on to explain why both natural and anthropogenic caused climate change is dangerous due to the unprecedented rise in temperature in geologic history. With reference to the children's bedtime story Goldilocks, Prof. Chow explains how the current global temperatures are in the "just nice" band but are set to shoot past a comfortable threshold into the "too hot" band at the current rate of increase in temperature.

Prof. Chow also talks about the carbon footprint of flying and the trend of increase in carbon dioxide over the years. "The rate of increase is unfortunately exponential. We are going to see continued increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere if nothing is done to reduce the emissions from human activities" says Prof. Chow.

Both mitigation and adaptation need to employed to deal with carbon emissions according to Prof. Chow. He highlights that apart from mitigation and adaptation there is also inaction, which is prevalent. Prof. Chow shares his fear that people will rely heavily on just adaptation strategies but also shares his growing hope looking at the increase in awareness about climate issues in recent years.