Why should you take action to avoid catastrophic climate change?

Global warming is happening right now in front of our eyes. Our weather is changing. Every one of the hottest 15 years on record has occurred since 1980. There is now huge consensus among scientists that we face serious climate change – we just don’t know what level of severity it will reach or when.

We probably have about 20-30 years left to sort this problem out and we need to spend our efforts and money on actions that deliver the biggest and fastest CO₂ reductions possible. We all have a part to play and we all need to work together to spread the understanding of this issue and our determination to tackle climate change. Work out your own ‘reduce and offset’ plan today with our useful reduction tips.

What is climate change?

When fossil fuels and wood are burnt they release greenhouse gases that occur naturally in the atmosphere, making the average temperature around 15°C. Without this protective ‘blanket’ our world would be a much colder -18°C

However, the extra greenhouse gases that humankind has emitted have already significantly altered the composition of the atmosphere, adding to the blanket and increasing the average temperature of the Earth. This is causing human-induced climate change. To stop this spiralling out of control, we must radically reduce emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Effects of climate change

The real impact of climate change remains worryingly uncertain, with consequences for all communities, species and environments across the world. Effects include:

• Changing weather bringing drought and flooding, affecting drinking water supplies and agriculture.
• Irreversible loss of many species of plants and animals.
• Rising sea levels, threatening freshwater supplies because of salt water intrusion.
• Melting glaciers, threatening freshwater supplies for millions of people who depend on glacier meltwater for their water supply and irrigation.

We will all experience these effects but an appalling injustice of climate change will be that those people in the developing world, who have contributed little towards the problem, are at greatest risk and will be the hardest hit. They have fewer resources for coping with storms, floods, droughts, disease outbreaks, and disruptions to food and water supplies. This is an issue with the welfare of humans at its heart.