What Is Global Climate Change Part 1

When we talk about global climate change we are in fact referring to what is known as the greenhouse effect. So in order for everyone to know exactly what we are talking about I wanted to explain this a little further.

Greenhouse gases are what keeps our planet warm. (try to picture our planet with a large glasshouse built around it keeping the heat in). Greenhouse gases exist naturally in our atmosphere. These gases trap the energy that comes from the sun which in turn heats up our atmosphere. This whole process is known as the greenhouse effect and without it our planet would be around -18 degrees Celsius. As it stands the typical surface temperature of our planet is around 15 degrees Celsius.

Now that you understand this let's move on to talk about changing temperatures. Studies carried out around the world have shown that our global climate is changing and that in the last 100 years our atmosphere has heated up by approximately half a degree Celsius. I know that this doesn't sound like much but it is having disasterous effects and has led to the world standing up and taking notice of what we now call global warming.

You may wonder what has led to this change in global temperature and this is what I want to talk about next.

Over the last 100 years it is us humans that have been causing the damage. We have been emitting extra greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These are the result of burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas. There are a large number of gases that are included in this and we will move on to talk about them later.

I am going to finish this post now and hopefully you can see that global climate change is something that we humans have caused and let's hope it is something that we can help to stop. As we move on through these basic post we will discuss: greenhouse gases, natural changes that have occured, what the future holds, and the impact that global warming will have on our planet.

Once you have read and fully understood all the basic posts you will then fully appreciate the posts in our other categories.

Until next time remember, it is our planet and it is up to us to save it.