ENVIRONMENTAL CLIMATE CHANGE

 

What is climate change ?

The scientific community and governments across the world are in agreement - the climate is changing.  

But what is climate change ? what is causing it ? and how will it affect us ? 

The climate can be described as the average weather over a period of time.  Climate change means a significant change in the measures of climate, such as temperature, rainfall, or wind, lasting for an extended period – decades or longer. The Earth's climate has changed many times during the planet's history, with events ranging from ice ages to long periods of warmth.  What’s different about this period of the earth’s history is that human activities are significantly contributing to natural climate change through our emissions of greenhouse gases. This interference is resulting in increased air and ocean temperatures, drought, melting ice and snow, rising sea levels, increased rainfall, flooding and other influences. 

So what causes climate change ?

Climate change can result from natural processes and factors and more recently due to human activities through our emissions of greenhouse gases. Examples of natural factors include;

• Changes in the sun's intensity
• Volcanic eruptions, or slow changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun
• Natural processes within the climate system such as changes in ocean current circulation