Editing Climatology (section)

=== Climate change ===
Climate change occurs when changes of Earth's [[climate system]] result in new [[weather]] patterns that remain for an extended period of time. This duration of time can be as brief as a few decades to as long as millions of years. The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also gives off energy to [[outer space]]. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines [[Earth's energy budget]]. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.<ref name="WEB-NASA-EnergyBalance">{{Cite web |url=https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/EnergyBalance |title=Climate and Earth's Energy Budget |date=14 January 2009 |website=earthobservatory.nasa.gov |language=en |access-date=3 December 2021 |archive-date=2 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191002090444/https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/EnergyBalance |url-status=live }}</ref>  Climate change also influences the average [[sea level]].

[[Modern climate change]] is caused largely by the human emissions of [[greenhouse gas]] from the burning of fossil fuel which increases [[Surface air temperature|global mean surface temperatures]]. Increasing temperature is only one aspect of modern climate change, which also includes observed changes of [[precipitation]], [[storm track]]s and cloudiness. Warmer temperatures are causing further changes of the [[climate system]], such as the [[Retreat of glaciers since 1850|widespread melt of glaciers]], [[sea level rise]] and shifts of flora and fauna.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-effects/|title=Global Warming Effects|date=14 January 2019|website=National Geographic|language=en|access-date=2 January 2020|archive-date=2 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191202114510/https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/global-warming-effects/|url-status=dead}}</ref>