Understanding Climate Change ( click for video ) Word Doc M Word doci

Last week the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its latest report on climate change and the news wasn’t good. The world is getting warmer, and humans are going to have to adapt and act quickly to avoid catastrophic consequences. We take a closer look at what climate change is and what scientists around the world are doing to try to save us from its effects.

Duration: 5min 34sec

Broadcast: Tue 17 Aug 2021, 12:00am

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AMELIA: Yeah, I am worried about climate change because it will be irreversible once we get to a point, and I don't think many people understand the severity of it.

DEVON: I'm quite worried about climate change because it's something that's going to happen whether we like it or not.

REPORTER VO: Yep, it's an issue that's hard to ignore and one that has scientists and world leaders and ordinary people really worried. So, what exactly is climate change?

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Climate change is really the long-term changes in the climate system that we experience.

This is David Karoly which if you can't tell by his t-shirt, he's a bit of a climate change expert.

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: It shows some of the observed changes in climate over the 50 years and 100 years.

In fact, he's the Chief Research Scientist at the CSIRO Climate Science Centre.

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: Climate change is how we see and feel changes in the temperature in the weather, in the rainfall patterns that we've lived in for our whole lives. But we're now seeing climate change from what your parents experienced and what your grandparents experienced. And these changes are occurring quite rapidly.

Climate change isn't a new thing. Over the past few billion years the Earth's climate has seen some pretty wild times. Methane atmospheres, ice-ages, iceless ages, and volcanic winters. Brought about by all sorts of natural phenomena like changes in the sun's temperature, the distance of the Earth from the sun and the tilt of its axis. Geological events have also had an effect and so have living things, which have changed the composition of gases in the atmosphere and contributed to the so-called greenhouse effect.

That's something you might have heard of. You see, the Earth's atmosphere is made up of a bunch of gases some of which trap the sun's heat. Those gases are known as greenhouse gases like methane, water vapour and carbon dioxide. While we need greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to survive if there are too many it gets hotter.

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: So, carbon dioxide is the key greenhouse gas that's increasing in the atmosphere due to human activity, human activity like burning fossil fuels, like petrol, oil, coal and natural gas.

After a lot of studies scientists have found that since we started burning fossil fuels in mass, global temperatures have risen by about 1 degree. That might not sound like much, but scientists say that just a few degrees can make a huge difference to global weather systems. Meaning more heat waves and bushfires, as well as other not so obvious extreme events like floods, cyclones and even extreme cold snaps. Something scientists say we're already experiencing.

And now a new major report has warned it's going to get worse. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says the world will continue to get warmer and if we don't take drastic action, we could see temperatures rise to a level the Earth hasn't seen for 3 million years.

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: No matter how hard we work to limit global warming, we know that there are some unavoidable impacts of climate change that are locked in because of the emissions we've made in the past.

I know it sounds pretty grim and while the problem is serious, experts say we can find a solution if we work together. Right around the world scientists are working on ways to cut carbon emissions with alternative energy sources, better farming techniques and other ways to make our lives more sustainable. Many countries have committed to working to reduce their carbon emissions to zero. But scientists say we also need to find ways to live with a changing climate.

DAVID KAROLY, CLIMATE SCIENTIST: What we have to do is to adapt to the impacts. We have to adapt to the more frequent high temperatures, we have to adapt to the greater frequency of heat bites, we have to manage the way we live, the buildings, the lifestyles, the agriculture, to adapt to the changes in temperature, as well as the changes in rainfall patterns that are also locked in.

Yeah, it's a big a problem, one that's going to take everyone, including future scientists like some of you guys, to solve.

MARIANNE: We can make a difference; I mean everyone has a role to play in this and if we don't fix things soon it's going to start causing a lot of bad problems around the world.

AMELIA: If we want a future for Earth then we need to step up.

1. Write a sentence that contains each of the following words.

catastrophic irreversible severity phenomena tilt vapour atmosphere

fossil cyclones drastic emissions grim alternative adapt frequency

agriculture

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Explain the idea of climate change, how it is caused and what its effects are.