| Climate change | Change in climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and is additional to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods. |
| Urban farming | Urban agriculture, urban farming, or urban gardening is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas. Urban agriculture is also the term used for animal husbandry, aquaculture, urban beekeeping, and horticulture. These activities occur in peri-urban areas as well. Peri-urban agriculture may have different characteristics. |
| Greenhouse effect | The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth's surface. When the Sun's energy reaches the Earth's atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases. The absorbed energy warms the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth. |
| Global warming | The process of increasing the average temperature of the Earth's oceans and atmosphere caused by massive emissions of gases that intensify the greenhouse effect, resulting from a range of human activities, especially the burning of fossil fuels and changes in land use (such as deforestation), as well as from various other secondary sources. |
| Climate | Climate in a strict sense is generally defined as the average climate or, more rigorously, as the statistical description in terms of the average and variability of relevant quantities over a period ranging from months to thousands or millions of years. The classical period for the average of these variables is 30 years (climatological normal), as defined by the World Meteorological Organization. The relevant quantities are mostly surface variables, such as temperature, precipitation and wind. |
| Adaptation to climate change | The local level is the bedrock of adaptation, so EU support must help increase local resilience. (Forging a climate-resilient Europe - the new EU Strategy on Adaptation to Climate Change - EU document) |
| Greenhouse gases | Whereas greenhouse gases released by the biosphere is often seen as a feedback or internal climate process, greenhouse gases emitted from volcanoes are typically classified as external by climatologists. Greenhouse gases, such as CO2, methane and nitrous oxide, heat the climate system by trapping infrared light. Volcanoes are also part of the extended carbon cycle. Over very long (geological) time periods, they release carbon dioxide from the Earth's crust and mantle, counteracting the uptake by sedimentary rocks and other geological carbon dioxide sinks. |
