"Climate change" refers to long-term changes in climate, while "global warming" refers explicitly to the rise in Earth's average temperature. Additionally, "weather" refers to short-term atmospheric conditions, whereas "climate" describes long-term patterns. Climate changes affect many aspects of our environment.

Planetary boundaries are a framework to describe limits to the impacts of human activities on the Earth system. Beyond these limits, the environment may not be able to self-regulate anymore. This would mean the Earth system would leave the period of stability of the Holocene, in which human society developed.