• Question: What does Global Warming mean

    Asked by to Anna, Iain on 21 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Anna Middleton

      Anna Middleton answered on 21 Mar 2014:

      Hi Adrianek21
      Global warming means the temperature of the sea and air on earth has got warmer. There is a lot of controversy about this and different opinions on whether this is new or just part of the natural cycle of what the earth goes through.

      Over the last 30 years it seems that the earth just keeps getting warmer each year.One of the big questions is: what is causing this? Is it due to something humans are doing? or is it something that would occur naturally anyway whether we were here or not?

      There is more evidence from scientists to suggest that global warming is caused by us. This is a big problem as we don’t want our weather systems to change too much.

      Just imagine if all the ice on the earth melted – this would mean that sea levels rise and then countries would disappear under water.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 21 Mar 2014:

      Global warming is the gradual heating up of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. Starting from about 250 year ago, the world transformed because of something called the industrial revolution. This was the period when people started using machines in their workplaces, and made manufacturing efficient. However, to power these machines they needed to burn coal. Ever since then we have been burning coal and other fossil fuels to power everything, from making electricity to running cars. This has release a lot of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere. This gas absorbs energy that would otherwise be released from the earth into space. That energy means that the atmosphere is getting warmer, and also heating the oceans. This could be a big problem in the future, as it can dramatically change our weather and maybe not even grow enough food to feed all the people of the earth.

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