The nature of global change

Despite the growing prominence of global change as an environmental issue, the term 'global change' and the phenonmena it encompasses are still widely misunderstood. Global change is often referred to as 'global warming' or 'climate chagne', but there is much more to it than a change in climate and, in fact, climatic change is now and will continue to be for the next few decades one of the less important components of global change interms of effects on the structure and functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. Other more immediate and more certain components are the direct human conversion and modification of terrestrial ecosystems, especially the accelerating loss of natural biological communities, and the alteration of the chemical composition of the atmosphere.