What is Climate Change?

Our many activities generate considerable greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), into the atmosphere. This increasing concentration of greenhouse gases is changing that balance between the heat entering and leaving the atmosphere. It results in retaining more heat and raising the average temperature of the Earth.

* The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) defines climate change as ‘any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity’.

* The climate change problem refers to a concentration of greenhouse gases: water vapor, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

* (IPCC) estimate that we have ten years in which to stabilize emissions to a maximum of 450 parts per million (they are currently at 430ppm) so as to stabilize global temperatures to a safe level at or below 2°C of warming.

* Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere are reaching a critical level.
If the increase in emissions continues there is a high risk that this will create catastrophic, or so called ‘runaway’ warming of the planet.