The Climate is Changing! |
The impacts are already being felt all around the world.
In the last 100 years, the global average temperature has increased by around 0.74 C.
By 2050, the global average temperature is projected to be 2.5 C warmer than today.
“We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth’s climate, or long term weather patterns, that varies from place to place.
As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there.
It’s changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.”
The greenhouse effect is the natural warming of the earth's atmosphere.
This effect is caused by certain gases (greenhouse effect gases) in the atmosphere which trap energy from the sun and keep heat from escaping.
Human activities have intensified the greenhouse effect.
The current stock of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is equivalent to around 340 parts per million (ppm) CO2 equivalent, compared to 218 ppm in per-industrial times.
These concentrations have already caused the world to warm by more than 0.5 C.
Under a BAU (business-As-Usual) scenario, the stock of greenhouse gases could more than triple by the end of the century.
It would give at least a 50% risk of exceeding 5 C global average temperature change during the following decades.
This would take humans into unknown territory. (Stern report 2006)
