CLIMATE CHANGE-MEANING, CAUSES, EFFECTS AND SOLUTIONS

Climate change is the catch-all term for the shift in worldwide weather phenomena associated with an increase in global average temperatures. It's real and temperatures have been going up around the world for many decades.

Reliable temperature records began in 1850 and our world is now about one degree Celcius hotter than it was in the period between 1850 and 1900 – commonly referred to as the "pre-industrial" average.

   There could be several causes for climate change. Rising concentration of carbon dioxide is the factor for climate change that we face today. Some human activities have also been identified as the primary causes of ongoing climate change, often referred to as global warming. Climate change is any significant long-term change of average weather of a region over a significant period of time. The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions and an increase in the number, duration and intensity of tropical storms. Taken as a whole, the net damage costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time.

Frost-free season

Droughts and heat waves

Hurricanes

Frequent wildfires

Global warming

Lyme disease

The solutions

    We need to step up our use of clean energy like wind, wave, tidal and solar energy

We need to step up our use of clean energy like wind, wave, tidal and solar energy Fortunately, there is practical, achievable action we can take now to minimise the amount of greenhouse gases reaching the

upper atmosphere.

    What we need is a low carbon economy with minimal use of fossil fuels. And our research shows that we already have the potential to produce everything we need to get us there – we’re just lacking the political action and investment to support a clean energy future.

    The first and most important thing we can do here in Britain is to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we use. This doesn’t mean sitting in the dark half the winter under a massive duvet, rather first of all we need to use the energy we get from coal, oil and gas as efficiently as we can. That means increasing the efficiency of the things in our life that use energy like appliances, cars, buildings and factories.

    Another huge step we can take is to make our energy production more efficient. Our current systems are so wasteful that properly applied energy efficiency measures could cut our overall power demand by over 50 per cent.

    Next, we need to step up our use of clean energy like wind, wave, tidal and solar energy. Equally important is a new smart national power grid capable of integrating all these different sources.

    We also need to redesign our transport system by improving and increasing the use of public transport, stopping airport expansion and massively increasing the efficiency of our petrol driven vehicles, and then replacing them, first with hybrids, and ultimately electric vehicles.

    Climate change is a big challenge for the planet, and requires action at a large scale by all levels of government and business, but there are many things that you can do reduce your own energy consumption and promote smart energy choices in your community.