By Emily Taylor, Year 7
Our ice caps are melting due to greenhouse gasses building up in our atmosphere. This is causing heat to be trapped, which further causes more ice to melt and the sea levels to rise.
As the ice caps are melting, many species of animals are seeing their habitats destroyed. Global warming is also causing the sea temperature to rise, which is destroying coral reefs, turning them into white skeleton-like forms instead of the beautiful colored structure we are used to.
In the last century, the worlds temperature increased by just a little more than 1 degree Celsius, and unless we take action the temperature will continue to rise. NASA scientists have seen that our earth is warming. The hottest years on record have been recorded in the last 20 years.
It is very easy to mix up weather and climate, so here are the definitions: weather is the “different parts of air or atmosphere on different places of the planet” whereas climate change is when there is a change in our everyday weather such as our temperature and rain “in a region over an extended period of time”.
This video from Crash Course Kids gives a great explanation!
There are many things we can do to reduce carbon emisions and help stop climate change. Here are a few simple things we can do at home: turning off our lights and plugs if we are not use sing them to save electricity; insulating our homes so we use less electricity on heating; and switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
If everyone were to do this, it would have a significant impact!
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
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