• Question: How is global warming affecting the world, does it produce more carbon dioxide?

    Asked by The BrightSpark to Stephen, Natalie on 10 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Stephen Richardson

      Stephen Richardson answered on 10 Jun 2016:

      Global warming can be a bit of a confusing name for what is happening to the planet. Because actually in some places it might get colder, or wetter, or dryer.
      So I think climate change is a better name – because there will certainly be a lot of change.
      Its the carbon dioxide (and a few other gases) that cause climate change (or global warming) rather than the other way round.
      Is climate change / global warming somehting you’re worried about?
      Do you get taught about it at school?

    • Photo: Natalie Wride

      Natalie Wride answered on 13 Jun 2016:

      Hi BrightSpark 🙂

      I agree with Stephen, global warming is just one part of climate change 🙂 I think a lot of us think of global warming more because we see things like the ice caps melting, but equally we might get more rain or colder weather – it all depends where you are.

      Carbon dioxide and other gases called ‘greenhouse gases’ cause global warming and climate change – it’s important to know that these gases are produced naturally by plants and animals as well as man-made processes such as burning fuels, which you probably learn about at school.

      Global warming and climate change affect the world in lots of different ways due to changing the weather we experience. So in some areas it gets warmer and ice caps start to melt, leading to rising sea levels and flooding, or there are long period of drought which mean some places are unable to grow and water their crops and unable to access water. Similarly, places can get colder which prevents them from growing certain crops. In other areas, you might get lots more rainfall or shorter periods of rainfall that are more intense. This can lead to flooding and can also trigger landslides and mudslides.

      Hopefully this answers your question 🙂 have you learnt about global warming at school?

Comments

  • Photo: The BrightSpark

    The BrightSpark commented on :

    I could get a bit worried 🙂

    • Photo: Natalie

      Natalie commented on :

      The problem is, for a long time (a long long time ago) we didn’t know what harm we were doing to the environment. We did a lot of coal mining and burning of fossil fuels which did a lot of damage! Now we know more there are some great things Engineers have done – we have electric cars that don’t pollute the environment, we’re trying to use less concrete in buildings (it involves a lot of energy to make concrete!) and we are making renewable energy sources so we don’t have to burn fuels 🙂

      Can you think of any renewable energy sources?

    • Photo: Alex

      Alex commented on :

      Don’t worry 🙂