What is Climate Change?
Climate change refers to long-term fluctuations in our planet’s climate. In recent years there has been sustained climate change, which we can see from global temperature rises. Scientists are in clear agreement that most of these changes are a result of human activity.
What causes Climate Change?
Most of this comes from the burning of fossil fuels in the rich industrial North and, to a lesser extent, the cutting down of forests, farming and other human activities that produce greenhouse gasses.
These gasses (such as CO2 and methane) trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere, creating a warming effect.
What might happen?
We are told this process is happening right now and that future effects will be wide reaching, hard to predict and potentially very dangerous. Sea levels will rise, ice will melt, green land will become desert, rainfall patterns will change, storms may become more intense, and we will experience much more extreme weather like floods and hurricanes.
These changes will affect the world’s poorest people unfairly, wreaking havoc on coastal regions, destroying farms and forests, wiping out many types of animal, and making already bad poverty much worse.
These stresses in our planet will cause problems in our economy and society. People might migrate across continents, and wars will probably start.
Further Reading
The MET Office’s Climate Change Guide
What can we do about Climate Change?
Sources
IPCC (2007). “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”. Published by IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland.
