What is Climate Change?

Climate change is a change in weather patterns caused by changes in the atmosphere. This includes changes to levels of rain and heat as well as air currents and humidity, which can be measured over geological time. The weather is affected by the oceans, land surfaces and ice sheets, which together form the ‘climate system’. By measuring the state of the climate system, it is possible to calculate climate change. Today, the global average temperature is about 15 Celsius, though geological evidence suggests it has been much higher and lower in the past.

Dry ground

Climate change is when there is a change in the climate system that has continued for at least three decades, measured through averages, variability and extremes. These changes may be caused by natural processes, such as solar energy, volcanic eruptions as well as natural changes in greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations. It is also affected by human influences. The most impact since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-eighteenth century include the burning of fossil fuels and conversion of land from woodlands and jungles to agriculture.

Read more

What is the Evidence?

The Earth had had a climate long before humans roamed the plains. The climate is influenced by a whole series of cycles of glacial advance and retreat, that has been turning for hundreds of millions of years. Cataloguing climate change from the past creates a database that provides evidence that recent climate change is different from anything this planet has previously known. Scientists have calculated that it is more than 95 per cent probable that the current warming of the planet over the last seventy years is the result of human activity, with the rate of change faster than anything ever recorded over the last millennia.

Gracier in front of Mountains

Modern technology

With satellites orbiting the Earth collecting information, scientists have been able to look at the climate on a global scale. Ice cores show how the Earth’s climate has responded to changes in greenhouse gas levels over the last 800,000 years. Add in information from tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks, and there is now a broad base of paleoclimate evidence that the global warming recorded today is about ten times faster than average.

Read more

What Causes Climate Change?

The Earth is protected by a layer of greenhouse gases that keeps it at an average of 15 Celsius (59 Fahrenheit), a level that supports life in the modern climate age. The main gases keeping the Earth’s temperature at this level are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, which absorb heat and heat the Earth’s surfaces.

Climate change in the modern age is caused when the atmosphere traps heat radiating out from Earth into space, to create the so-called “greenhouse effect”. This is caused by gases that remain in the atmosphere for a long period of time and are unaffected by temperature changes.

Earth’s greenhouse effect

Greenhouses gases

Water vapour

While water vapour changes with a rise in temperature, it is important as a feedback gas with regards to the climate. When the Earth’s atmosphere warms, water vapour increases as does the possibility of clouds and rainfall.

Read more

What are the Dangers?

The Earth had had a climate long before humans roamed the plains. The climate is influenced by a whole series of cycles of glacial advance and retreat, that has been turning for hundreds of millions of years. Cataloguing climate change from the past creates a database that provides evidence that recent climate change is different from anything this planet has previously known. Scientists have calculated that it is more than 95 per cent probable that the current warming of the planet over the last seventy years is the result of human activity, with the rate of change faster than anything ever recorded over the last millennia.

21st century ecological sensivity map by NASA

Continuing climate change will see an increase in wildfires, longer periods of drought and tropical storms that be stronger and last longer. Glaciers are already getting smaller, and ice is melting faster than previous records which impact on the habitats of plants, animals and humans across the globe.

In May 2019, sensors tracking the Earth’s atmospheric concentration of CO2 since the late 1950s detected the highest-level CO2 concentration of 415.26 ppm recorded for three million years when sea levels were several metres higher, and trees grew at the South Pole. Scientists have warned that carbon dioxide levels higher than 450ppm are likely to lock in catastrophic and irreversible changes in the climate.

Read more

Climate Change Solutions

The Paris Agreement focuses on keeping the global temperature rise in this century to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels – ideally to 1.5 degrees Celsius – to avoid “severe, widespread and irreversible” climate change effects. On current trends, the world is likely to pass the 1.5 degrees Celsius mark before 2050, unless the net zero emissions target is reached.

Ending fossil fuel combustion

Ending the burning of coal, oil and natural gas will be the best way to solve climate change. Yet oil is at the core of the global economy in terms and reducing dependence on fossil fuels by carbon-neutral biofuels will see food prices rise and forests destroyed to make way for the planting of these new fuels. Although nuclear power does not emit greenhouse gases, it does produce radioactive waste which causes its own problems.

Ocean climate solutions and their potential annual greenhouse gas reductions in 2050

Cutting energy demand

Stop wasting energy. Turn lights off when you leave the room and drive a fuel-efficient vehicle. Be mindful of water usage and think green about everything from lighting, heat, new appliances and insulation.

Read more

Climate Change Protests. Get Involved!

In October 2018, the warning in the landmark October 2018 report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that the planet was 12 years away from catastrophe unless “far-reaching and unprecedented changes” are taken, led to the most recent climate change protests and in the US to significant litigation cases. These protests, which have been taking place worldwide, are against government inaction on issues of climate change and have largely been led by students, the very people left to deal with the changes.

Climate change protesters march in Paris streets

“Fridays for Future”

Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has been speaking out and demanding action to deal with climate change from leaders since August 2018 when she began her lone strike outside the country’s parliament in Stockholm. She has said that she will continue to strike until Sweden is aligned with the goals of the Paris Agreement. It is her actions that have led to the formation of Fridays for Future, a youth organisation in Europe.

On 15 March, thousands of students in 112 countries held a “Fridays for Future” protest from India to South Korea to Chile. With no central organisation, the marches were organised regionally via several Instagram and Facebook accounts, tailored to the events in their area that would help them persuade the people they knew. For example, in Australia, students are demanding that the government end all new mining and power the country with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2030.

A second protest on 24 May involved 130 countries. In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel cited the school strikes as one of her reasons for backing a European Union-wide target of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The next global strike will be on 20 September, during the United Nations General Assembly international climate summit.

Read more

These Celebrities Speaking Out on Climate Change

Climate change is an intense debate around the globe, and celebrities are part of the conversation. There are many celebrities who are speaking out about the need to curb climate change and who want to help make the change they want to see. These celebrities are able to encourage others to be part of the solution, to become educated about alternative energies and the part they can play individually and collectively.

Here are just some of the most famous names who have used their knowledge and experience to communicate on the politically divisive topic of how to manage the impact of climate change whatever the party allegiances may be.

Arnold Schwarzenegger about climate change

Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough

Sir David Attenborough, 92 has called global warming "our greatest threat in thousands of years". Popular for his BBC documentaries about life on Earth, his latest on climate change for the BBC in April 2019 was a call to arms since the impact of climate change conditions has changed far faster than he ever imagined, which could lead to the collapse of societies as we know them today. For all the horrors, the documentary spends the last 20 minutes, focusing on what needs to and can, be done on an international and personal level.

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson

A member of Greenpeace for decades, Emma Thomas travelled to Svalbard in 2014, where she witnessed the effects of climate change at the Arctic site suffering rapid ice melt and met with scientists. Over the years she has spoken out against the European Union voting against a ban on Arctic oil drilling; the Norwegian government granting rights to drill for oil in Arctic waters and the UK for making promises in the Paris agreement to then grant 200 new fracking licences in the country. She has been championing the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy that will protect the planet and future generations from disastrous consequences and encourages others to join the “movement of the century”.

Read more

What do the tech giants do to help prevent climate change?

Major technology companies have adapted to demands to reduce their impact on the environment by reducing their carbon footprint to slow down the process of climate change. The tech giants of Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, IBM and others are adapting to climate change through innovations, which offer surprising results.

Jeff Bezos talks about climate change in Paris

Cloud computing

The top players of cloud computing include Microsoft, IBM, Google and Amazon, who are competing to offer the best business platform. Cloud computing has financial and technological benefits but also environmental benefits. It reduces energy consumption, waste, and carbon emissions. In the report ‘The Carbon Benefits of Cloud Computing: A Study on the Microsoft Cloud,’ it was found that Microsoft cloud computing is 93 per cent energy efficient and has 98 per cent fewer carbon emissions than on-site data centres.

The decrease in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions comes not just from the fall in energy use, but also because there is no onsite life-cycle to consider such as raw materials for equipment, its transport and use and disposal when it is no longer in use. Large companies can lessen per-user carbon footprint by 30 per cent, while smaller organisations can save up to 90 per cent. Cloud services also encourage people to use virtual services like video streaming instead of physical products.

One example of cloud computing in business is the latest in-play betting systems delivered through a private cloud. These free up databases and storage systems so that the firms can respond to the demands of in-play betting. Not only does the technology get the data out to customer’s dashboards in near real-time, but the software to store information is also in the cloud, with automatic updates that do not interfere with the user’s experience.

Read more