By: Nana, William and Gustavo What is Climate Change? By: Nana, William and Gustavo

What is the climate? (Will) In order to talk about what is climate change, we need to know what is the climate. The climate is the regular weather that surrounds a certain area; it can differ in seasons, it can be hot and sunny in the summer, but cold and wet in the winter. For example, the dryness in the desert, or the humidity and precipitation in the Amazons.

What is climate change? (Nana) Well, just like the answer to our first question, climate change is also the change in the earth’s climate. It can be the change in temperature, or regular changes in weather. Sometimes it can take millions of years for there to be a climate change. Life on earth is possible because of the sun; without the layer of insulation we have thanks to balanced gases, this planet would be frozen. Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is the most important part of this layer. Carbon is all over the world, but releasing so much of it, for example by burning fossil fuels and cutting down trees, today’s atmosphere contains 42% more carbon dioxide than it did before the industrial era between the 1760s up until the 1840s.

We have released so much of this gas that now Earth’s atmosphere is now like a thick, heat-trapping blanket. The result: the climate changes, and it gets warmer day by day. Climate change has effected places like the polar regions, like the Arctic and Antarctica, where the ice is melting everyday continually. In the Arctic scientists have said that there’ll be almost no summer sea ice cover left in the Arctic in the next few decades. The oceans are vital in absorbing large amounts of CO2, stopping it from reaching the upper atmosphere. gustavo

In the Amazon, the abundant amount of biodiversity that exist in the jungle are at risk of going extinct if a large amount of climate change occurs. In 2005, they experienced the worst drought by memory; remote villages were left searching for water after rivers dried up, and were isolated while commerce stopped. Thousands of square kilometers of land burned for months on end, releasing more than 100 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere. (will)

Why are the Ocean and Seas so Important? Oceans are a necessary part of the ecosystem that is earth; it helps capture large amounts of carbon dioxide preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. But as temperatures in the ocean rise and the amount of CO2 becomes bigger, the oceans become more acidic, and are making a larger impact then we’d probably like to see. (Nana)

The Coral Reef Some of you may or may not know, but the coral reef is a living organism. It is sensitive, and along with algae, are suffering from the lack of oxygen in the ocean. If the global warming continues to go on its path, by 2050, the biggest coral reef in the world, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef will remain by only 5% of its original size. The coral reef is necessary to half a billion people who fish for it as their main source of protein (Gustavo).

The Wildlife We can’t talk about Climate Change without speaking about the wildlife. Global Warming is one of the biggest causes of species extinction. If a 1.5° degree temperature happens, it may put 20-30% of species would risk extinction. Climate Change is happening much quicker than most animals can adapt to, and they also live in sensitive zones. Here are a list of a few animals who are particularly at risk. (will)

Adélie Penguins Adélie penguins spend most of their time in Antarctica, but Global Warming is reducing the amount of ice around the continent. Some of its main food sources are underneath the sea ice, and reduced sea ice means reduced food for the Adélie penguins.(Nana)

Orang-utans These majestic cousins of ours live in Borneo, which is infamous already for its deforestation, forest conversion and illegal hunting. One of the first effects of climate change would probably be food shortages.(Gustavo)

African Elephants Changes in the amount of rainfall can become the cause of floods, or droughts and wildfires. Any one of these three weather types are unsuitable for these elephants, let alone any type of animal. (Will)

How we can help We can help by not emitting greenhouse gases when we burn fossil fuels We can also help by having fewer children, not having a car, eating more plant based diet (Nana)

Thank you