Climate variability

The term climate variability is used to refer to the variations in the Earth's climate. The term is a more neutral counterpart of climate change. The latter term already includes the assumption that a particular change of the climate is taking place, and it is therefore a less balanced starting point to analyze the questions about the climate.

Many natural sources of climate variability are known, at least qualitatively. There is a serious scientific controversy about the existence and size of human influences on climate variability. See global warming controversy.

The term global warming is used as a synonym for climate variability by the scientists who believe that they know the answer before a proper amount of research is done.