What's up with the Climate?

What is climate change, anyway?

First, let's define a few terms

Weather refers to short-term changes that occur in an area over minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Examples include rain, snow, thunderstorms, droughts, and more.

Climate refers to averages of weather regionally or globally over the long-term, such as years or decades.

Climate change refers to a broad range of changes happening accross the planet. This encompasses global warming, rising sea levels, shrinking mountain glaciers, ice melt, and global shifts in flower and plant blooming times.

Global warming refers to the long-term warming of the average temperature globally.

What causes global warming?

Heat trapped by the atmosphere warms the planet

The planet absorbs heat from the sun. Most of that heat is radiated back into space to keep our planet comfortable as we know it. However, gases in the atmosphere known as greenhouse gases absorb heat, trapping heat that would otherwise escape into space like an insulating blanket.

Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and fluorinated gases. Out of these, carbon dioxide is the most abundant and is often referred to as carbon emissions.

Where do greenhouse gases come from?

Here's how human activities produce greenhouse gases

25%

Electricity

Burning Fossil Fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil for electricity.

29%

Transportation

Methods of transportation such as non-electric cars, trucks, ships, planes, and trains.

23%

Industry

Manufacturing of goods and raw materials and burning fossil fuels for energy.

13%

Commercial and Residential

Fossil fuels burned for heat, certain product use, and handling of waste.

10%

Land Use

Agriculture, livestock, and deforestation for urbanization.

Percentages based on US greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

How has the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere changed over time?

Things have changed since the Industrial Revolution

For the past 800,000 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide (the most abundant greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere has been between about 180 and 260 parts per million (ppm).

In the last 250 years since the Industrial Revolution, that number has risen to over 400ppm and is still increasing today.

What are some effects of global warming?

Hover over the image to see what happens

Tap on the image to see what happens

Rising Temperatures

Rising temperatures in some areas will lead to prolonged droughts and wildfires.

Intense Weather

Tropical storms and extreme weather events will increase in frequency and intensity.

Warmer Oceans

Warmer ocean temperatures and melting ice caps will cause sea level to rise.

Melting Ice

Ice caps and mountain glaciers will significantly and permanently change landscapes.

How can we prevent Global Warming?

Reduce Emissions to Net-Zero

The most important step to reducing global warming is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases to be net-zero, meaning the amount we produce is equal to the amount that can be absorbed by carbon sinks.

Some approaches to this include investing in clean energy sources like wind or solar, reducing coal production, and developing more efficient cities and transportation methods.

Restore Carbon Sinks

Planting and restoring more forests can directly remove greenhouse gases from the air. This is an example of a Carbon Sink, which also includes marine areas and large areas of soil.

Plan for Mitigation

The effects of climate change are already being felt around the world. Planning resilient cities, buffer zones, and allocating resources for research and innovation is necessary to help mitigate changing coastlines, record temperatures, extreme weather events, water scarcity and more.

What can I do to help?

Here are 5 ways to reduce your carbon footprint

Reducing emissions isn't easy. While none of us can tackle this problem individually, social scientists have found that when one person makes a sustainability oriented decision, other people do too. Here are the best ways to make an impact.

Go Car Free

Going car-free is the best action an individual can take. Gasoline cars are more polluting compared to other means of transportation like walking, biking or using public transport.

Eat 50% less meat

If cattle were their own nation, they would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases. By reducing your consumption of animal protein by half, you can reduce your diet’s carbon footprint by more than 40%.

Switch to Energy-Efficient Alternatives

Much of our heat and energy is powered by coal, oil, and gas. Switching to energy-efficient appliances, washing laundry with cold water, or hanging things to dry can help reduce energy usage and save money too.

Use your Voice

By voicing your concerns, via social media or directly to elected officials, you send a message that you care. Encourage political leaders to enact new laws that limit carbon emissions and require polluters to pay for the emissions they produce.

Offset your emissions

If you can’t make a change, consider offsetting your emissions. The UN Climate Convention offers a tool to help calculate your carbon footprint and offset it by supporting green development projects across the world.

What causes global warming?

Heat trapped by the atmosphere warms the planet

Where do greenhouse gases come from?