So, you’ve probably heard about climate change, right? It’s all about the Earth’s weather and temperatures changing over a long time.
What’s Up with Climate Change?
Basically, the Earth’s getting warmer because of what humans are doing. Our actions are causing more intense heatwaves and making the sea levels rise. Not good news!
What’s Causing It?
We’ve known the climate’s always changing, but this time it’s different. It’s happening super quickly, and that’s because of us. We’re burning lots of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas in our homes, factories, and cars. When they burn, they release stuff called greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide (CO2), which traps extra heat in the air around our planet.
What’s Already Happened?
Even though it’s just 1.1 degrees Celsius warmer now compared to the late 1800s, it’s caused some major changes. We’re talking crazier weather like more intense heatwaves and heavy rainfall, ice melting like crazy in places like the Arctic, and oceans warming up big time. This isn’t just affecting nature; it’s changing how people live too. Think huge droughts putting millions at risk of hunger or heatwaves causing more deaths.
What’s Coming Next?
Here’s the scary part: the hotter it gets, the worse things will become. Experts say it’s super important to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. If we hit 2 degrees Celsius, it could mean way more heatwaves, higher sea levels putting more people at risk, and huge damage to things like coral reefs. That’s not all—more people could face poverty and risks linked to climate change.
Why It Matters to Everyone
It’s not just about one place or group of people. Climate change affects everyone, but those in poorer countries might feel the impact more because they don’t have as many resources to deal with it. And even if one place suffers, it could cause problems everywhere. For example, if a place has trouble growing crops because of crazy weather, it could mess with food prices all around the world.
What’s Being Done?
In 2015, loads of countries got together in Paris and made a big deal to try and keep the planet from getting too hot. They said they’d aim to reach “net zero” CO2 emissions by 2050, meaning they’d cut emissions as much as possible and try to balance out any leftover ones. Lots of countries are working on plans to hit this goal, but the levels of these greenhouse gases keep going up.
Summing It Up
While some progress is happening with things like renewable energy and electric cars, the Earth is still warming up fast. World leaders chat about this every year in big meetings, and the next one, COP28, is happening soon in the United Arab Emirates. But, bottom line, we’ve got some serious work to do to stop this planet from heating up even more.