What is Climate Change?

The Earth's climate is continually changing, it always has done and it always will do. Up until the 20th century climate change was the result of entirely natural processes, despite this, the changes have been huge and the processes extremeley complex. Long term trends have often been interrupted with short term blips of both cooling and heating.

Mans Influence

Climate change today is widely taken to mean changes in our climate which we have seen, largely since global industrialisation throughout the 1900's. Climate change in this period is thought to be partly attributable to man’s activities on earth and not solely due to natural changes in the Earth’s atmosphere.

The Greenhouse Effect

The greenhouse effect is an important process to understand in relation to global warming. It relates to the gases in the Earth’s atmosphere which keep it warm and it is the accelerated release of greenhouse gases as a result of human activity that is thought by many to be a major factor influencing climate change today.

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