What is Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect?
Climate change is the long-term shift in average weather patterns across the world.
Our planet is heated by energy from the sun. In an ideal situation, half of the sun's heat should be naturally reflected back into space while the other half is trapped by clouds, naturally occurring greenhouse gases and particles in our atmosphere. This natural balance is what makes life on earth possible, creating an average temperature of 14°C. This natural process is called the Greenhouse Effect. Without this process the earth's natural temperature would be -19°C and no life would survive.
The problems we are now facing are due to a change in this natural process. The result of an increase in greenhouse gases and particles from human activity is that more heat is being trapped in our atmosphere. This increases the average temperature and ultimately results in climate change (IPCC 2023).
Even if the production of these gases stopped immediately, because of the large amounts already present in the atmosphere and the time it will take for them to dissipate, the effect will be felt for around two decades (IPCC 2023).
The climate stripes for Preston show that local changes in temperature mirror those of the UK and globally. Each bar (stripe) represents the annual average temperature for each given year
Source: Professor Ed Hawkins University of Reading #ShowYourStripes