What is climate change?
Climate change refers to a change in the average state of the climate and/or the variability of its properties.
The Earth's climate has changed many times in response to natural causes. However, since the early 1900s, our climate has changed rapidly due to persistent man-made changes in the composition of the atmosphere or in land use.
Let's explore:
- How do we know it's changing?
- What is changing?
- What is causing the changes?
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What is climate change? transcript
(PDF, 89 kB)
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What affects our climate?
Our climate is dominated by two major factors, the Sun and the atmosphere.
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Why is our climate changing?
There are only a few plausible things that could cause this sudden warming of our climate, such as big natural variations in our climate or greenhouse gases.
