Desiccated salt marshes on the island of Noirmoutiers, 7 August 2022
Climate change refers to long-term variations in temperature and weather conditions. These could be natural variations caused by the solar cycle, for example. However, since the 19th century, human activity has been a major contributor to climate change, mainly through the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases, which act as a blanket around the earth, trapping the sun's heat and causing temperatures to rise.
Carbon dioxide and methane emissions, in particular, are responsible for climate change. For example, it comes from using petrol to fuel a car or from using coal to heat a building. Deforestation of land and forests can also release carbon dioxide. Landfills are a major source of methane emissions. Major emitters include energy, industry, transport, construction, agriculture and other land use sectors.
A skeleton polar bear on the ice floe
Greenhouse gas concentrations have reached their highest level in two million years and emissions continue to rise. As a result, the current global surface temperature is 1.1°C higher than in 1800. The last decade has been the warmest on record. According to current national climate plans, global warming is expected to reach 3.2°C by the end of this century.
Many people believe that climate change will mainly lead to higher temperatures. But rising temperatures are only the beginning of the story. The earth is a system in which everything is connected, so changes anywhere can affect anywhere. Current impacts of climate change include severe droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, sea level rise, flooding, melting polar ice caps, catastrophic storms and loss of biodiversity.
People experience climate change in many ways. Climate change can affect our health, our ability to produce food, where we live, our security and our jobs.
Some of us, including those in small and other developing countries, are already vulnerable to their effects. Continued and prolonged drought puts people at risk of famine. Many solutions to climate change can improve our lives, protect the environment and bring economic benefits.
There are also international frameworks and agreements to shape progress, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement. The three main categories of action are reducing emissions, adapting to the impacts of climate change and financing the necessary adaptation.
Plastic pollution
Global warming is very important to me, because my parents taught me from a very young age to take care of global warming with small actions on a daily basis. These small actions may seem useless, but in fact they are not, if everyone did something for global warming we would make a big step forward.