What Is Climate Change? Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas.
Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. |
The main greenhouse gases that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heating a building, for example. Clearing land and cutting down forests can also release carbon dioxide. Agriculture, oil, and gas operations are major sources of methane emissions. Energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture, and land use are among the main sectors causing greenhouse gases. https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change
The GreenPeace Initiative is a program of Young Peace Builders (YPB) with a focus on combating Climate Change through awareness raising, advocacy, and implementation of programs that are geared towards a green, clean, and habitable environment and planet. Human activities, contribute to climate change, which decreases the availability of nutritious food and clean water, and destroys ecosystems and secure living environments. This leads to malnutrition, ill health and migration, rendering youth particularly vulnerable. At the same time, youth constitute the majority of the population in many countries and have an increasingly strong social and environmental awareness, which has the power to transform our societies towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. The GreenPeace initiative is completely youth-led. The work undertaken with and by youth is crucial to raise the ambition of governments to come to an agreement on a new climate change regime by 2015. Tackling climate change requires concerted coordinated government action as well as conscious and informed efforts by individuals. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen both formal and informal education on climate change and viable lifestyles. In addition, sustainable production and consumption patterns must be promoted and youth supported as environmental champions in their local communities. Partnerships should be developed between governments, intergovernmental, non-governmental, and youth organizations for joint environmental initiatives aimed at building the capacity of youth as future leaders and driving forces behind a new climate change regime. Considerable efforts are also needed in strengthening the adaptive capability and resilience of youth in rural communities in developing countries.
Climate Change & Our Health
The health effects of climate change include respiratory and heart diseases, pest-related diseases like Lyme disease and West Nile Virus, water- and food-related illnesses, and injuries and deaths. Climate change has also been linked to increases in violent crime and overall poor mental health.
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Climate Change & Floods
How is climate change connected to flooding? As climate change warms up the atmosphere, the air can hold 7% more water vapour for every one-degree Celsius rise in temperature. When this air rapidly cools, water vapour turns into droplets which join together to form heavy rainfall
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Rising Sea Levels
Global sea levels are rising as a result of human-caused global warming, with recent rates being unprecedented over the past 2,500-plus years. Sea level rise is caused primarily by two factors related to global warming: the added water from melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the expansion of seawater as it warms.
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