climate change- royal geographical society（climate change - royal geographical工厂）.doc

RGS-IBG KS3 Tutorial – Climate Change – Students’ Booklet Introduction: Climate change is often written about in newspapers and featured on the television. The earth’s climate has changed many times in the past but more recently scientists believe that the actions of humans are having a bigger impact on the changes to the planet’s climate. This impact is very great and could lead to the extinction of many forms of life on the planet. In 1988 the IPCC was created (International Panel on Climate Change) to measure climate changes on the planet which are caused by human action. Climate change research is being carried out urgently and there are many theories and uncertainties about the findings. There are, however, certain facts that are largely agreed on. These facts are explained below. Also, climate change has become a political issue as there are many who stand to win and lose as laws and public opinion changes. Whilst there are many facts about climate change, there is also a number of mistruths in the media. The public and particularly students, therefore, need to be careful in checking the source of information at which they are looking and keeping in mind that very often misleading information can be very convincing. What do climatologists generally agree on? Global temperatures have increased for many reasons, but in the industrial age, climate change has been increasing at an increasing rate. The planet warmed by 0.5°C in the 20th Century. Most of the warmest years ever recorded were in the 1990s with the decade being the warmest decade of the last millennium. Average global sea levels have increased by between 10 and 20 cm over the last 100 years. This has been due to polar ice melting and increased rainfall. There has been an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events including both storms and droughts. The IPCC acknowledges the link between human use of natural resources and the climatic change the planet is experi