Here’s the science bit…

The Earth gets most of its warmth from the sun, we all know that. And as temperatures increase, the Earth maintains our climate by reflecting this energy back into space. On the way, some of this heat is then re-absorbed by naturally occurring gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and nitrous oxide. All fine so far.

However, as a result of us humans, these gases have increased substantially, and have acted like a big cosy blanket around the Earth, trapping more and more heat. This is what the boffins call the Greenhouse effect, and it is why we are experiencing some pretty unusual weather all around the world, what is generically termed climate change.

But why should we care?

Surely this means we will have nicer summers, and milder winters here in the UK doesn’t it? Well yes and no. We are likely to see hotter weather, but we are also likely to see a lot more floods, storms, droughts and stronger winds in the relatively short term. In the longer term it could mean that 1.8m people in Britain are put at risk from coastal flooding if we see temperature rises of 4 degrees or more. And further afield it could put some 80 million at risk of flooding, and many more at risk of water shortage and of failed harvests. We may also see increased incidence of landslides, malaria, water-borne diseases and forest fires, and an unprecedented loss of wildlife and damage to our natural systems.

Okay but what has that got to do with me?

Well, every time you use energy, for example by turning on a light switch, using a computer, watching television, driving to work, taking a flight or cooking a meal, you are creating CO2. And this means you are contributing to that cosy blanket we talked about.