What is Climate Change?

So what is climate change really? We all know that it has something to do with the earth heating up and it makes surviving on earth harder for each living being. But there is more to the story! Let me explain.

First of all, the climate. Climate is not the same as the weather we see everyday. Weather means the conditions outside on one particular moment, so today it’s sunny and tomorrow it could rain. Climate, on the other hand, means the weather that is expected over a longer period of time at one place on earth. For example, Africa could have no rain all summer long in a few years.

So when we are talking about climate change, we are talking about the changing weather conditions over a longer period of time. We could be looking at temperature, rainfall, melting ice… For example, right now we see that the general temperature around the world has been going up. In the last 100 years, the temperature has gone up by 2 degrees and scientists think that the temperature will go up by 3,5 to 8 degrees by 2100. This global warming is a part of climate change and this is one of the things people often worry about. But why?

Impact of Climate Change

Why should people be worried about climate change? Wouldn’t it be nice to have some warmer weather now and then? But this changing climate isn’t all fun and games. It has a big impact on your world, as it could even make certain places on earth uninhabitable. That means that people won’t be able to live in certain areas of the world anymore. Let’s go over some big risks we face due to climate change.

• The ice on the North Pole is melting which results in rising sea levels. These rising seas cause life-threatening floods and (parts of) countries will and are already disappearing underneath the sea.

• Heat waves, forest fires and extreme droughts are becoming more frequent. For example, do you remember the forest fires in Australia?

• Other countries experience more winter floods and extreme rain.

• We see an increase in heat-related deaths around the world. 

• Animals and plants are struggling to survive as well, some species are losing their habitats and risk going extinct.

• Hurricanes are becoming stronger and more intense. 

• People will have a harder time growing food because of the changing temperature, droughts or floods.

We could talk about a lot of consequences of climate change, but I hope you see why it is important that we take action.

Are humans the cause of Climate Change?

So, climate change, is this the people their own fault? Some people say it is entirely the people’s own fault, others say that they don’t have an impact on this at all. So, who is right? What most experts believe to be true lies somewhere in the middle. 

First of all, the climate that is changing is a natural process. The climate has been changing long before humans walked on earth. Things like volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, changes of the sun and other factors contribute to the constantly changing climate.

That being said, we see that the climate has been changing faster than ever over the last 150 years. Scientists believe that these extremely rapid changes are caused by human activities like using cars, using a lot of fuel in factories, the increase in chopping trees... These human activities have an impact on the so-called ‘greenhouse-effect’, this effect consists of gases located around the earth that make sure that heat isn’t escaping. These gases are increasing because of our human activities and cause more and more heat to be trapped in earth’s atmosphere.

So we could say that climate change is partly natural, but not at the speed that it is going right now. So, if people are making climate change worse, are they also able to make it better?

What can we do?

There is this concept of ethical citizenship. What does that mean? According to Trensition, an ethical citizen is someone who sees beyond self-interests to the needs of the world he/she is living in. This includes caring for the environment and making small, but impactful changes in our lives in order to make a difference! The good news is that more and more people have been adopting this way of living, which means we still have a chance at becoming friends with our environment again!

I want to talk with you about what people can do and what they are already doing about climate change! Would you like to know more? Click on the button and see how we can work together for better futures!