Too hot?

Hey, you might of heard a little bit about climate change and how it's impacting our little planet called planet Earth, but do you know what it actually is?

First things first, climate is not the same as the weather. You could imagine the climate as the "machine" and the weather is the part of this machine that we see, for example the rain, a storm, snow, sunny weather. And this "machine" is powered by the sun.

The sun is getting hotter and is about 4,500 million years old, it won't blow up for a while yet though! The sun isn't accountable for all of climate change though, it's us humans and our machines.

Almost all machines use oil, gas or coal and these produce pollution. Much of this is a gas called carbon dioxide (CO2) and it's this which seems to be the main source of the problem.

For millions of years, carbon was hidden away inside limestone, coal and oil. This hiding of carbon and it being buried deeply in the Earth's crust has kept the climate balanced. When we burn and use coal, oil and limestone, the carbon is released and forms carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

You may of heard of something called the greenhouse effect. Basically, all this carbon dioxide being released acts like a greenhouse. When you go in a greenhouse on a sunny day, the glass traps the heat from the sun and this is what the carbon dioxide does. 

With the Earth getting hotter, ice in the ocean is melting, causing sea levels to rise. This is really bad news because as sea levels rise, it means more water in the sea which will flood onto our land. 

Disease is also a problem as mosquitoes love the warmth and they carry diseases such as malaria.

So all in all, climate change is a HUGE problem, but there are things we can do to help!

• Get involved - Join petitions about preventing climate change; vote for parties that support effective climate policies
• Insulate - Get your house insulated and insulate yourself by wearing warm clothes in the winter, this will result in using less heating in your house
• Switch up your transport - Instead of taking the car, try walking or cycling to places more often not only will this be very beneficial to the environment, it's really good for your health
• Energy efficient - Hang wet clothes on the washing line when you can; turn lights off when you leave the room; look for the energy efficiency label when buying new appliances, these are all small things you can do that will make a big difference.
• Spread the word - Talk to your friends, family, colleagues, teachers about climate change and tell them about how they can help

So, now hopefully, you know a bit more about climate change and how you can help. Sorry I haven't posted in a LONG time, I'm not even going to try and make up excuses I haven't had much time and I haven't had much inspiration but I will try to be posting more regularly now. :)

Love Liv xxx