Most of us have heard of climate change at one point in our life. But what exactly is climate change? In this post, we will explore what climate change is, both on a high level and a low level.
First, let’s go over the basics. According to the UN, climate change is “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” By long-term, it usually means over the span of decades or centuries. There are many causes of climate change. Some examples are changes in the sun and emissions from volcanoes. While these do influence climate change, the thing that is causing it the most is human activity. We as humans are emitting a lot of greenhouse gases (GHGs), which causes it to speed at a faster pace than it would if we weren’t emitting a lot of GHGs.
Most the heat from the sun just reflects off of the ground, sending the heat to space, causing the planet to be very cold. However, there are GHGs (e.g. CO2) that keep the heat in the earth. They do so by absorbing then radiating the heat in the earth. We, as well as other species, need this in order to survive. However, the more GHGs there are in the earth’s atmosphere, the more heat is trapped in the earth’s atmosphere, causing the climate to shift. Usually, it is at a very slow pace, allowing species to adapt to it over time. However, recent human activity has lead to it getting faster and faster. This is why it there have been record breaking temperatures all over the world lately.
You might be wondering, “Why is this bad? I love the warm weather!” While this might be true, the effects of climate change are not worth it to a vast majority of people. We will go more in detail about the effects of climate change and how it works in the next post.
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