Climate Change

Climate change has happened throughout the history of the Earth. The world 10,000 years ago was different from the world 100,000 years ago and even more different than 10 million years ago.

According to natural historians there are also periods in the Earth's history when the climate changes dramatically. When this happens large numbers of species of animals, plants and fish cannot adapt quick enough and this causes extinctions.

Some scientists believe that we are in the midst of the sixth mass extinction in the earth's history now. The last time was 65 million years ago when the dinosaurs became extinct. They say that this one is different because we are the cause of the climate change.

What is happening to the world?

A lot of scientists believe that the world has become warmer over the last 100 years. They say that it is because of humans that this world has become hotter and a lot of species of animals, fish and plants are dieing and becoming extinct as a result of global warming.

Scientists believe it is because we are burning a lot of fossil fuels that sends up a lot of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The atmosphere already has carbon dioxide in it and it is this that keeps the heat in from the sun keeping the earth warm. But when there is too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere the earth becomes too warm and a lot of bad things such as floods, storms and droughts happen. They believe that there is too much carbon dioxide in our atmosphere now and that we need to act urgently to change this.

It would be nice to have warmer summers!

We all like to go on summer holidays to nice and warm places. We like to eat ice creams and play on the beach in the sun. But when the earth becomes warmer a lot of people will suffer a lot because of this.

Scientists say that there will be more floods like the ones in England in 2007 and places such as Bangladesh will see even more floods.

A lot of people in poorer countries will starve as their crops will not grow.

Even though there will be more rain there will be less fresh water for people to drink.

The polar ice caps will melt and sea levels will rise. This will cause many islands around the World to go underwater.

In 2003 there was an extremely hot summer in Europe and 10,000 - 30,000 people died because of the heat. This will only get worse.