3. • Climate change is the change in our weather
patterns that are occurring because of an
increase in the earth's average temperature.
• It is also known as global warming.
• Climate change may result from both natural
and human causes though the human causes
appear to be increasingly responsible for
climate change over the past few decades
4. Climate is the average weather at a given point
and time of year, over a long period (typically 30
years).
We expect the weather to change a lot from day
to day, but we expect the climate to remain
relatively constant.
If the climate doesn’t remain constant, we call it
climate change.
The key question is what is a significant change
– and this depends upon the underlying level of
climate variability
Crucial to understand difference between
climate change and climate variability…
5. “ It is a change which is attributed directly
or indirectly to human activity that alters
the composition of the global atmosphere
and which is in addition to natural climate
variability observed over comparative time
periods”
28. CO2 and carbonate (which plankton use to make shells)
combine in the ocean.
The ocean is already more acidic than it was 50 years ago.
CO2 CO2
Ocean
Atmosphere
“shelled-critters”
