What Is Climate Change & How Can We Help?

What is Climate Change?

Climate change is a change in the usual weather found in a place. This could be a change in how much rain a place usually gets in a year, or it could be a change in a place’s usual temperature for a month or season.

Climate change is also a change in Earth’s climate. This could be a change in Earth’s usual temperature, or a change in where rain and snow usually fall on Earth.

Weather can change in just a few hours, climate takes hundreds or even millions of years to change.

What is causing Earth’s climate to change?

Many factors can cause the climate to change on it’s own; Earth’s distance from the sun can change, the sun can send out more or less energy, ocean’s can change. Even when a volcano erupts it can change Earth’s climate.

What could happen to Earth’s climate?

Scientists think that Earth’s temperature will keep going up for the next 100 years. This world could cause more snow and ice to melt, oceans would rise higher and some places may get hotter whilst others might get colder winters with more snow. The rain could also increase/decrease in some areas of the world and some may even have stronger hurricanes.

Effects of climate change

Global climate change has already had very obvious effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner.

Effects that scientists have predicted in the past would result from global climate change are now occurring: loss of sea ice, accelerated sea level rise and longer, more intense heatwaves.

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, mostly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

How can we help reduce climate change?

1. Encourage the government to act now! Time is running out to stop catastrophic climate change.
2. Take action in your community! Climate Action groups are the local solution to a global crisis.
3. Power up on plants. Meat and dairy production is responsible for 14% of global climate-changing emissions. Too much meat is no good for your health either. Each year we could prevent thousands of early deaths in the UK, and save the NHS a fortune, by eating low-meat or no-meat diets.
4. Top up your fitness. Petrol and diesel cars spew out lots of climate-wrecking emissions. They also increase air pollution.
5. Get your electricity from the wind and sun. Wouldn’t it be nice to weaken the big climate polluters that burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas? You can switch to a green-energy provider, without any disruption to your supply.
6. Take the train not the plane! Your carbon emissions will be sky high if you fly frequently (excuse the pun). From the mountains of Snowdonia to Cornwall’s beautiful beaches, think about all the places you can visit without flying.
7. Save energy at home! Even though a lot of our electricity now comes from renewable, the UK still powers up on a lot of climate-wrecking gas. So an energy-guzzling home is bad for the climate, as well as your pocket. Turning off lights and unplugging appliances will help, but heating could be undoing all your good work. Make a dent in your carbon emissions by properly insulating your home. There are more Eco-friendly heating options too, like smart controls and heat pumps.
8. Move to a green bank. Choose to a bank that invests in the type of things you agree with.

You can also research online on how you can help the world become a safer place from climate change and helping the environment and all living creatures who make this place a home.