• Question: What started the climate change and why?

    Asked by kittenman to Cat?, Elaine, Helena, Iain, Gabriel on 4 Mar 2016. This question was also asked by coolTails48 -Youtuber, Minnie Mc, mOOn, abby, JP.
    • Photo: Olusegun Gabriel Fawole

      Olusegun Gabriel Fawole answered on 4 Mar 2016:

      Climate change is a direct result of human’s activities on earth. Industrialisation and urbanization have added so much pollutants (gaseous and particulate) to the atmosphere and these have in turn altered the earth’s energy radiative budget. This pollutants in the atmosphere absorb, scatter and send back radiation from the sun, and as a result alters the amount of the sun’s energy reaching the earth’s surface. Increasing the level of these pollutants further will increase the effects of climate change.

    • Photo: Elaine Mawbey

      Elaine Mawbey answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      well I look how climate changed in the past before humans even had machines and so there are natural ways in which the climate changes caused by, for example changes in how the earth rotates around the sun. However if you mean the current warming of the climate which we think is caused by human activity then it is related of the release of CO2 into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. This CO2 stops some of the radiation from the sun leaving earth’s atmosphere which makes it warmer. This is known as the “Greenhouse effect”.

    • Photo: Helena Quilter

      Helena Quilter answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      The climate has always naturally changed (we’ve had hot periods in the past and cold ice ages) but over the last hundred years or so we’ve seen the temperatures on Earth rising at a faster rate. Like Elaine and Gabriel said that’s related to human activity!

      Here’s the way I like to think of the “Greenhouse Effect”…

      Earth has an atmosphere that contains lots of gases such as nitrogen, carbon dioxide and oxygen. This atmosphere is really important for life on Earth because it stops harmful rays from the sun getting through to us and also keeps us warm by stopping some of the heat leaving. Without our atmosphere the average temperature on Earth would be below freezing!

      Imagine that Earth is your bed and the atmosphere is a blanket so you’re nice and warm.

      Over the last 100 years or so we’ve been using lots of fossil fuels to get energy – to do things like make electricity and power our cars. Fossil fuels aren’t exactly fossils like you might be thinking, but they’re things like coal and crude oil. Fossil fuels are dug up out of the ground and were made over millions of years from the remains of plants and organisms that lived a long time ago. These materials that contain lots and lots of carbon, so when we burn them for energy we release a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. If there is more CO2 in the atmosphere, more heat is kept from leaving Earth and the temperature rises – a bit like being in a greenhouse. That’s why it’s called the Greenhouse Effect.

      Now imagine Earth is your bed and someone’s given you an extra blanket and now you’re way too hot!

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