Climate Change

What is climate change?
What happens as a result of climate change?
Where will it happen?
What can we do?
What is Canada doing?
Links for more information

Picture a young girl living in Bangladesh, in South Asia. The effects of climate change have caused serious problems in her life. Rain is less regular over Bangladesh and storms are stronger. Ocean levels have risen and flooding has damaged her home and her family's farm. Saltwater has soaked into the soil, making the land unsuitable for growing food and the well water too salty for drinking. Because the temperature of the ocean has also risen, there are fewer fish available. Her family now has trouble producing enough food to feed themselves, let alone enough to earn the money needed for clothing, doctors, and schooling.

If nothing is done to address climate change, this young girl-and many other girls and boys like her around the world-will face an uncertain future and an increasing number of challenges.

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The Earth is warming up

• The 1980s and 1990s are the warmest decades on record so far.
• 1998 was the warmest year in that period.
• The 20th century has been the century in the past 1,000 years.

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What is climate change?

Climate change refers to global changes in temperature, wind patterns, and precipitation. These changes are being driven by a gradual warming of the Earth's atmosphere (called global warming) due to human activities. The Earth's climate has been changing naturally and slowly over the centuries. Cold periods have alternated with warm periods. However, these changes have been happening at a much faster rate in recent years.

The Earth's atmosphere traps heat escaping from the surface of the planet, which keeps us warm. Carbon dioxide, part of the mixture of gases in our atmosphere (called greenhouse gases), is very good at trapping heat. Some of the greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere from nature every day. For example, carbon dioxide stored in carbon sinks enters the atmosphere from decaying plant matter and forest fires.

In the past, natural processes could handle the amounts of greenhouse gases generated, and the system remained in balance. In recent decades, however, human activity has been overloading the natural processes. Greenhouse gases are now being generated by the burning of fossil fuels to run cars and factories and heat buildings, as well as by industrial processes. These releases of greenhouse gases, called emissions, have shifted the atmosphere's natural balance.

As well, large tracts of the Earth's forests are being cut down for wood and to clear land for farming and for cities and towns. That leaves fewer trees to absorb and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The balance of gases in the atmosphere has changed significantly. The result: more heat is being trapped in the atmosphere. The more heat trapped, the warmer the Earth becomes.

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Did you know?

Cutting down forests adds to climate change. When a tree is cut down, its stored carbon is released into the atmosphere.

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What happens as a result of climate change?

Warmer temperatures are changing our weather. It is difficult to predict exactly what will happen and what exact effect climate change has on people and their environments.

Some scientists are predicting that rain and snow will increase in some places and decrease in other places. This might lead to floods in some areas and droughts in others. Severe weather, such as heat waves, extreme cold, tornados, wind storms, typhoons, blizzards, etc., may happen more often. Sea levels may rise, flooding low lands near oceans where millions of people live. Some of these areas may stay under water permanently. Diseases may spread to new areas. Some species of plants, animals, and fish may die if there is not enough time for them to adapt to the new conditions.

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Did you know?

Using a solar-powered lantern instead of a kerosene lantern over 25 years will keep about one tonne of carbon out of the atmosphere.

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Where will it happen?

Climate change is already affecting the entire world-its land, water, and air. Not only is our environment affected, but also the health, jobs, economies and ways of life of the people living on our planet.

Most developing countries do not contribute as many emissions to the atmosphere as industrialized, developed countries do. However, many people agree that developing countries will face the greatest hardships due to climate change. Developing countries do not have the money, the organizations or the technologies to help them adapt to current and future changes.

Over time, it is expected that rainfall in Africa and the Middle East will continue to drop. This means less water for people to use for drinking, cleaning, and growing crops, in a region where water is already scarce. Low-lying countries and islands like the nations of Southeast Asia may be submerged as sea levels rise, displacing large populations. As weather patterns change around the world, people who depend on crops for their livelihood will find it increasingly difficult to get good yields.

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Did you know?

Using renewable energies, such as wind power, will make an important contribution to fighting climate change. These energy sources can be used in place of fossil fuels.

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What can we do?

We cannot stop the normal climate cycles of warming and cooling from happening. But we can reduce our contribution to the unnatural changes that are happening. If global warming is slowed, people, plants, and animals will have more time to adapt to environmental changes. To do this, we must take action:

• We can drive our cars less.
• We can protect our forests from being completely cut down.
• We can use alternative technologies and energy sources that conserve energy use or are less harmful to the environment, such as solar power.

Using new technologies and energy sources that do not release harmful emissions and that protect our natural resources is one important way of helping in the fight against climate change. In some villages in India, for example, people are "plugging into the sun" as an energy source for cooking, running appliances, and lighting. Solar energy is more climate-friendly than traditional fossil fuels-it does not release harmful emissions. In Bangladesh, farmers are learning how to grow vegetable crops on water instead of on land. Because Bangladesh is vulnerable to rising sea levels, finding new ways of farming will help farmers to grow enough food, even in a changing climate.

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What is Canada doing?

Canada has signed the Kyoto Protocol. This agreement has committed Canada and other industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to help developing countries in the fight against climate change. In response to that commitment, Canada has created the Canada Climate Change Development Fund (CCCDF), which is administered by CIDA.

Through the CCCDF, Canada is helping people in developing countries meet the challenges of climate change in four key ways:

• introducing policies and technologies that will reduce harmful greenhouse emissions;
• promoting forestry and agriculture practices that will protect and enhance natural carbon sinks;
• reducing the vulnerability of poor countries to climate change and helping them adapt to its negative effects; and
• raising awareness about climate change and helping to develop tools and technologies to combat climate change.

Here are some stories about projects made possible through the CCCDF:

• Brick-making factories in Egypt are switching to new energy sources that will release fewer harmful gases.
• Young people in China are learning about climate change and what they and their communities can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• New ways of managing Indonesia's vast peatlands are cutting down on forest fires and rehabilitating these valuable carbon sinks.
• In El Salvador, people are learning how to create jobs that do not rely on destroying their natural resources. For example, a women's group is making a shampoo made from special herbs grown in that country to sell around the world.

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Links for more information

Climate change: A global development challenge (CIDA)
The Great Warming
Encyclopedia of the Atmospheric Environment
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Global Environment Facility
Sierra Club of Canada
Water (Youth Zone)