|
|
|
Ah, we could
babble forever on climate change. There
are loads of questions that folks have about it!! To keep things
simple we'll just start with the basics!!
|
|
|
|
|
What is the difference between climate and weather?
|
|
|
The first
thing to know about climate is to
understand that it is not weather.
Weather is the day-to-day local stuff that we experience. If
it snows on Sunday and rains on Monday, then we are talking about weather.
|
| |
Climate looks at the
BIG picture, the weather over a larger
area, like a province, a country or the world!. If a scientist says that the average temperature in Canada
has risen in the last one hundred years, or that average amount of rain across Europe has changed over the last thirty years, then she
is talking about climate.
Climate
change then, is the
change over a long time and over a larger area. |
|
|
|
What’s wrong with a warmer world?
|
|
Hey, it
sounds great! More days on the beach…
Less snow to shovel… Fewer
snowballs to duck…
BUT...
the truth is
that climate change will cause way more bad than good...
|
| |
Scientists and experts believe that even minor changes
in the world's temperature
will:
-
Melt
a lot of the arctic ice which will raise sea levels and cause problems for
people living on the coast.
-
Will
cause more storms.
-
Will
make some places much drier and create more deserts.
-
Will
make the weather harder to predict and unseasonal.
-
Will
put stress on plants and animals who like things just right.
-
Will
make us have to deal with more hot, hot, hot, sticky and uncomfortable
days in the summer.
Climate change is
something we should avoid. Its much more than more warm days. We
need to all take part in making changes in our lives that are more
climate-friendly!!
|
|
|
|
Isn’t climate change just
an idea?
|
|
Until recently we weren’t really sure.
Today though, there are thousands of scientists and experts from
around the world who agree that climate change is real. |
|
|
|
Isn’t climate change still a long time away?
|
|
The 20th century was the warmest recorded
in the past 600 years. Greenhouse
gases released by human pollution have already begun to warm the atmosphere.
The arctic ice has already begun to melt.
So it has started but we can all work to make sure it doesn't get
worse. |
|
|
|
What is the difference between the Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming?
|
|
Well… the big difference is that one is natural while the
other is not. The Greenhouse
Effect is amazing! It is the earth's way of keeping us warm with its
special blanket of greenhouse gases. These gases trap the sun's
cozy warmth around our planet and is what has allowed life to
exist!! Neat stuff! Without it, it would be -18 degrees
Celsius! Brrr... |
| |
Global Warming
is when we add extra greenhouse gases to our atmosphere. More
gases means more trapped warmth and this puts stress on our sensitive
earth. Burning fossils fuels (coal, oil and gas) for our energy
and transportation is a main cause of extra greenhouse gases. So
if we cut back on using fossil fuels we will become more
climate-friendly! |
|
|
Do
we have to stop using fossil fuels in order to prevent Climate Change?
|
|
Let's
be real! We’re
not going to stop using fossil fuels overnight.
But luckily we don’t have to! The
earth's forests, ponds and bogs soak up a lot of greenhouse gases!!
In fact they soak up over half of them! So we only have to cut our
fossil fuel use in half! THIS WE CAN DO!! So head back to
this site's WHAT TO DO: YOU AND ME! pages and
let's get started!! |
| |
|
|
|
|
