CLIMATE CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE GENERATION

Image credit: National Public radio (NPR)

We’ve all heard about climate change but do you know what it is exactly? This article is dedicated to all kids who want to learn more about climate change and how it affects our mother Earth. So let’s get started…

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

Climate change is a variation in the normal climatic condition of certain regions across the planet for a prolonged period of time. It can either be changes in the rainfall patterns or in the temperature.

According to scientists, ever since the Industrial Revolution took place, the human activity on Earth has relatively increased and has resulted in warmer climate. This means that the temperature goes high each year and some of the warmest years of Earth have come about in the past 20 years. Climate change is also known as Global Warming wherein Earth gets heated up and thus it has adverse effects on a lot of things on the planet. 

Have you ever thought that Weather and Climate are both the same thing? Well they aren’t and here’s the difference between both:

Weather

We use the word ‘Weather’ to describe certain conditions of a place at that specific time. For instance, if you see that it is a snowy day today, you can say that the weather is snowy for that particular day. However, that is not the case for climate.

Climate

We do not use climate to describe a day or two, but a climate is a regions weather conditions throughout a certain season or a specific time of the year. For example, you know how the climatic conditions of a region are during specific times of the year; it can be hot during May and June while it can be extremely cold through the other months. Now, let’s learn a little more about Climate Change.

When we talk about climate change, one thing to keep in mind is that we are talking about the climatic conditions for long period of time. For instance, if you looked at Seattle or New York City a few thousand years ago, it was all covered up in glaciers. However, due to climate changes, the cities now have warm climate with relatively less glaciers.

Another term that comes to play when we talk about climate change is the ‘Global Climate Change’; it is the average long term climatic changes on mother Earth. These changes include:

  • Warm temperatures
  • Shrinking glaciers on mountains
  • Rising sea levels
  • Changes in the seasonal blooming of plants and flowers
  • Fast melting of ice in Antarctica and Greenland

Earth’s climate has never been constant for longer period of time. However, studies have found that recent human activities have caused immense change in Earth’s temperature and it is quickly increasing. This sudden increase was not anticipated, at least not in about 150 years.

WHY DOES CLIMATE CHANGE OCCUR?

Earth’s climate is a result of a lot of factors or aspects combined. However, according to scientists, the climate of Earth is getting warmer from the past 100 years. This is because of the human activities and greenhouse effect.

Greenhouse effect is when some gases in the atmosphere of Earth do not allow heat to escape, thus they keep Earth warm. When human beings burn fuel or use loads of vehicles like buses and cars to travel, it leads to the emission of gases into the atmosphere. These gases affect the natural greenhouse of our Earth and result in more heat getting trapped in Earth’s atmosphere, which leads to warm climate. This has resulted in the global air temperate near the surface of the Earth to go up by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit within the past 10 years.

All of this can cause adverse conditions on Earth like droughts, heat waves, hurricanes and a lot more. Moreover, it can also have a major impact on human beings, animals and plants on Earth. One way to reduce all these adverse effects is to avoid the emission of greenhouse gases that can tamper the climatic conditions of Earth.

HOW TO HELP MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE?

As you know that human activities affect the Climate on Earth to a great extent, it is our responsibility to make sure we contribute our best in making Earth a better place. To do that, you should know how you can help mitigate the effects of climate change. Here’s how you can do it:

Use Renewable Energy
One great way to help is by using renewable energy sources like sunlight to power the solar panels for lighting our homes and streets. When you use renewable energy, there is less emission of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. You can also use public transportation, cycling, or walking when you travel to reduce the emission of excess carbon dioxide in the air.

Recycle
Whether it is a plastic bottle or an old newspaper, recycling is always a good idea. Besides, it is much easier to make new paper out of old newspaper as it consumes less energy.

Save Electricity
Save electricity as much as possible, turn off the lights when you do not need it as it reduces the wastage of energy.

Plant Trees
Plant a lot of trees as trees are the essential things we need because they consume more and more carbon dioxide and give us fresh oxygen.

Making Earth a better place is in our hands, so why not follow the above-mentioned steps and help mitigate the effects of climate change slowly and steadily.

 

FOR MORE INFORMATION...

The following video by Crash Course Kids provides very useful information on the effects of climate change.