Climate Change
Climate change is a change in the worlds climate, it is a drastic change. It is being caused by global warming. Global warming is being caused by us and many other things. So that means we can do something about it. The more we try to ignore it and cover it up it will just get worse.

Global Warming
Global warming is the rise in temperature of the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth is naturally warmed by the suns rays, which are then reflected back to outer space.

As our emissions are so high it causes a greenhouse effect. The Earth is naturally warmed up by the suns rays and are reflected back into outer space. Because our emissions are very high we cause a green house gas (GHG) effect.

The Earth's atmosphere has natural layer of GHG's, without this the Earth would be freezing and there would be no living organisms. It would be too cold. As we are releasing a lot of carbon dioxide (CO2) we cause a GHG effect.

The thermal blanket that protects the Earth, and makes life on Earth possible, gets thicker. This means that when the suns rays heats up the Earth and which then reflected into outer space get trapped. The extra GHG's reflect back the suns rays into the Earth instead of out. This heats up the Earth causing the Earths temperature to increase.

Effects of Global Warming
Here are just some of the effects of global warming
The polar ice caps will melt and make the salty water un-salty. This makes the ecosystem unstable. Thus waters will rise. When water ice melts it releases a gas called methane clathrate. This gas contains a large amount methane, this will add to the effect of global warming. This can increase the worlds temperature by up to 5 degrees celcuis.

There is a risk that lots of species will become extinct (20-30%) this as the temperature will rise 3.5 degrees celcius.

There will be more droughts and heat waves on a much higher scale. Severe droughts could happen in Europe. We take fresh clean water at our service for granted here but there could be less of it. The worst that will be effected is Africa who already have problems with water.

There will be warmer waters so there will be more hurricanes and storms, however they will be bigger and have a bigger impact on the Earth. Diseases will travel North because insects will migrate up North. Diseases cost money to cure and treat. Economically they will cause an impact.

What we can do to reduce our emissions
- Buy a few organic cotton long wearing bags to use for when you go shopping. Plastic bags harm the environment.
- Turn the lights off when you are not in the room or in broad daylight.
- Unplugging electrical appliances when not in use. This saves a lot of energy.
- Buy foods with little or no packaging.
- Turn the heating down by 2°-3° C.
- Switching to 30 degrees on your washing machine.
- Only boil the water you need in a kettle.
- Hand dry the washing instead of tumble drying it.
- Switch all your bulbs to low energy bulbs or energy saving bulbs.
- Insulating your house.
- Instead of taking the car or motorbike for short journeys, walk, cycle or take public transport.
- Re-use or recycle products.
- Don't throw away old clothes, give them to a charity shop.
- When buying fruits and vegetables buy them loose, as it will save on packaging.
- Buy products which have less packaging on them.
- Buy in bulk, this can save a lot of car journeys that emit fuel. Instead of buying separate crisp packets buy multi-packs.
- Do not buy "paper", buy recycled paper. You can also do this with stationary products. There are a lot of stationary items such as pencils and rulers which are made out of recycled items.
- Make food from scratch instead of buying them tinned or packaged.