Print this pagePrint this page

Science of Climate Change

Article published in the Charlbury Chronicle September 2009

2006 saw the hottest average temperatures in the UK since the Central England Temperature (CET) record began in 1659, and 2007, whilst very wet, was the second hottest.  The CET is the world’s oldest continuous temperature dataset. All around the world people are reporting abnormal weather such as extreme flooding, hurricanes and drought.

Someting is happening to our climate - a survey of 3,146 earth scientists, published in 2009, found that 97% of active climatologists agree that human activity is causing climate change.

For over a hundred years scientists have known that some gases have a special quality, they hold onto some of the energy in the sun’s rays and trap that heat in the atmosphere.  This has some similarity to the way that glass traps the sun’s heat in a greenhouse, and for this reason these gases are called greenhouse gases. 

The main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. When we burn coal, oil and gas we produce carbon dioxide (global warming power=1) and our heating, power stations, cars, planes and industry all use these fuels. Continuous Antarctic ice core records over the past 650,000 years show that the current level of carbon dioxide in the air  is not just the highest but also increasing at the fastest rate over that entire period. The main sources of methane (GWP=23) are landfill rubbish dumps, coalmines, farm animals and wet rice fields. Nitrous oxide (GWP=296) comes mainly from oil-based nitrogen fertilisers.

In small quantities these greenhouse gases are very useful, they keep the world warm and indeed help life to exist. The reason scientists are so worried is that we are now adding to these gases at twice the rate that the natural ecosystem can remove them. As more and more of the sun’s heat is kept within the climate system the weather will become more and more extreme and unpredictable.

Watch this space in the December Chronicle for an explanation of why preventing the world’s average temperature increasing more than 2ºC above pre-industrial levels is so important to prevent runaway climate change.

If you want to get involved locally please contact info@sustainablecharlbury.org

Sustainable Charlbury


Previous page: The Age of Stupid
Next page: Wood Buyers Group