Weather Versus Climate Change

Context for Use: 

I show this video in all of my Earth science courses, early in the semester, to help students understand the differences in the scientific terminology. Too frequently, these terms are used interchangeably on the news and on websites. I like using this video as a short introduction to the vocabularly before we begin discussing weather, climate, global warming, greenhouse gases, etc. A quick search in the PAESTA Classroom under the subject Climate and Climate Change yields several news stories and activities relating to weather and climate.

Submitted 8 years 3 months ago by Laura Guertin.
Recommended Grade: 
Any
Description: 

This video was published on May 28, 2014, as part of the Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (link is external) series. In the video, Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the differences between weather and climate change through a simple walk with a dog. He discusses the differences in the length of time and scales of data that are examined to determine short-term fluctuations and long-term averages. The video is also available on the National Geographic Channel website (link is external). Unfortunately, both the YouTube and NatGeo clips have advertisements at the beginning. The video is 2 minutes and 9 seconds in length.
 

atmosphere - air