Global warming
Global warming is the process of the average temperature of the earth rising over time.
While it would be easy to assume that this would result in warmer temperatures around the world, what it actually does is change the weather patterns, resulting in more hurricanes and cyclones, stronger tides and more rain in some places while less falls in others.
Some parts of the world may even become colder during the process of global warming because of these weather effects.
Observations over the last 100 years have suggested that the average land temperature around the world has risen by between 0.45 and 0.6 degrees centigrade.
Global average surface temperatures 1856 to 2005. Source Wikipedia
While this may appear a very small change, the effects can be much greater.
The threat of global warming, after all, is not that we’ll boil to death, but that changes in weather patterns may make it more difficult to grow food, rises in water levels may leave people on low-lying islands and coastlines with no place to live, and changes in the environment may cause the deaths of many species of animals, fish and plants.
Global warming is worrying because it has far-reaching consequences for our planet, our lifestyle and even our survival.
While there is still controversy over whether humans are directly responsible for this process, or sometimes whether it is even occurring at all, more questions are being asked and more people are aware that their actions may affect the world they and their children live in.
Some questions the world has been asking include: