Glossary
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Carbon Dioxide (CO2) | A naturally occurring gas, and also a by-product of burning fossil fuels and biomass, as well as land-use changes and other industrial processes. It is the principal human caused greenhouse gas that affects the Earth's radiative balance. It is the reference gas against which other greenhouse gases are measured and therefore has a Global Warming Potential of 1. Climate Change Denial |
| Carbon Footprint | The total amount of greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere each year by a person, family, building, organization, or company. Climate Change Denial |
| Causation / Causality | Causality is the principle that one process, state, or event (the cause) contributes to the production of another (the effect). It describes the relationship where an outcome is directly dependent on a preceding action. Science General |
| Cell | A cell is the smallest unit of life. Each cell contains everything that it needs to function. Some organisms such as bacteria are made up of only one cell. Multicellular organisms such as plants and humans may have millions of cells. GMOs |
| Cell-Mediated Immunity | Cell-mediated immunity (CMI) is an immune response that eliminates intracellular pathogens (viruses, bacteria), cancer cells, and foreign tissue without using antibodies. Antiscience |
| Chain-of-thought reasoning | Chain-of-thought reasoning makes language models generate step-by-step explanations before arriving at the answer. Artificial Intelligence |
| Cherry-Picking | The tactic of selectively choosing data that supports a desired conclusion while ignoring contradictory evidence. Science General |
| Chlorofluorocarbons | Gases covered under the 1987 Montreal Protocol and used for refrigeration, air conditioning, packaging, insulation, solvents, or aerosol propellants. Since they are not destroyed in the lower atmosphere, CFCs drift into the upper atmosphere where, given suitable conditions, they break down ozone. Climate Change Denial |
| Climate | Climate is the long-term average of weather patterns (temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity) in a specific region, typically calculated over 30 years. It differs from short-term "weather" by representing predictable, seasonal norms rather than daily atmospheric conditions. Climate Change Denial |
| Climate Change | Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun's activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun's heat and raising temperatures. Climate Change Denial |