Climate change is a subject that attracts fierce debate as does global warming. The issue is complex and the planet's climate has always changed. However, there is now general scientific agreement that this is happening at a faster rate - almost exclusively due to mankind's exploitation of the planet's resources.
The main cause of this man-made climate change is the increasing rate at which carbon dioxide (CO2) is being released into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is the most significant of the six 'greenhouse gases' which contribute to global warming and climate change.
globally, seven of the ten warmest years on record were in the 1990s
global snow cover has decreased by 10% since the 1960s, contibuting further to climate change and global warming.
use of the Thames Barrier, which protects London against flooding, has increased from once every two years in the 1980s to an average of six times a year over the past five years.
Weather-related damage to communities and businesses has increased ten-fold over the last 40 years.
As household owners, we use approximately one third of the UK's total energy requirements and contribute to about a quarter of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions through heating, lighting, cooking etc. However, if we all do a little bit to reduce our home's emissions, together we will make a big difference.
The challenge of Climate change and global warming
Trying to understand how climate change will affect the world is tough, there are so many different things to consider: the geology, the atmosphere, industry, tides, plants, you name it, and they all interact with each other. To try appreciate how these factors act together scientists have to build complex mathematical models of how climate change could affect the world. These models attempt to predict warming around the globe.
A BIG I.T. Problem
The problem is that this climate model of the world needs a lot of computing power to work out the answer, and there are multiple answers, each depending on what we put into the equations. It's a bit like weather forecasting, but because you are looking so far into the future, small differences in the assumptions you make in the model lead to big differences in the predictions. To get a more accurate prediction than any one forecast you run lots and lots of different models and look for the similarities that emerge. So the idea is that rather than build one big computer to do this (it would be enormous and expensive) we break the model down into small bits and use lots of computers, people's computers in fact, working together. If you download the software your desktop machine will use its 'free time' to run the calculations when your screen saver pops up, and send the results to be joined with results from thousands of other computers to try and find the answer. You can download the climate change screen saver from the BBC and become a part of the world largest computer, helping humanity.
Financial Scenarios for Climate Change
The financials for climate change will differ from country to country. The graphic shows specific scenarios for costs accumulated at the local level by the middle and the end of the 21st century.
React or Accept? Costs for Climate Change
The graphic compares the costs of climate change under business-as-usual and timely action against global warming. Estimated losses for the U.S. alone could amount to 800 trillion dollars.
