THE INTER-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change as ‘a change in the state of the climate that can be identified (e.g., using statistical tests) by changes in the mean and/or variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer. It refers to any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity’. The definition provided by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is slightly different, as it emphasizes on ‘a change that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and that is in addition to natural climate variability observed over a comparable time periods’. Leaving aside the semantics involved, the essential point that these definitions try to signify is all about how and to what extent the changes in the weather pattern over an extended period can be related to human activity, directly or indirectly.

Evaluation of Some Contributing Factors

Given the fact that human civilization and industrialization have amplified the emission of ‘Green House Gases’ (GHG), the question is whether they really are the main causal factors accelerating climate change. GHGs constitute Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (NO2), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), Perflurocarbons (PFCs) and Sulpurhexafluride (SF6). In addition to these, water vapor is considered important, which absorbs the heat radiations from sun and traps such radiations in the atmosphere making the earth warmer. Emission of GHGs beyond certain limits makes earth’s atmosphere hotter and can induce climate change.