Climate is what the weather of a place is like over a long time (like 30 years or more).
Climate can change. When it does we call it "climate change" (makes sense, huh?). Climate changes can be natural. Natural changes happen over a very long time (hundreds and hundreds of years).
The reason climate change is such a big issue now is that things people have been doing for the last 100 years have been adding up and can change the climate in a big way. These changes could happen faster and be bigger than any in the last 1000 years.
Most scientists think that the average temperature of the world will go up between 1°C and 3.5°C over the next one hundred years.
For Canada, many scientists think that temperatures could go up between 5°C and 10°C.
Special gases in the Earth's atmosphere called "greenhouse gases" help make the Earth warm enough for us, other animals and plants to live.
Climate change is more than changes to weather. Climate affects the environment that people, and wildlife (plants and animals) depend on. This means climate change is also about plants, animals and all the other living and non-living (like soil, rocks, oceans, and lakes) things.
Things people do like using electricity, driving cars, cutting down and burning trees, making things in factories etc. put extra greenhouse gases in the air.
These extra greenhouse gases cause the Earth's temperature to go up. Changing temperatures affect other things to do with climate.
Climate change could affect EVERYONE and EVERYTHING around the world.
Some of the changes could be good. Many of the changes could be bad.
Connecting to EcoKids to learn about climate change is the first step to doing something about it.
