In my environmental science class I was asked to talk about climate change. I was asked to look at certain websites to find information and then answer three questions. These are the following websites I am supposed to use to answer three questions. Climate Change at the National Academies http://nas-sites.org/americasclimatechoices/ United States EPA Climate Change Site: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html United Nations Climate Change Information Kit: http://unfccc.int/resource/iuckit/cckit2001en.pdf Center for Climate and Energy Solutions http://www.c2es.org/ Yale Project on Climate Change Communication http://environment.yale.edu/climate/ These are the questions I am supposed to answer: - According to evidence, is the climate changing right now? - What does evidence say about humans’ roles in the changing climate? - How is climate change likely to affect our society and our world? Now this is what I found: 1. According to the evidence right now and the United States EPA Climate Change Site, “Temperatures are rising, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events.” Also the site states that we are having “heavy rainstorms and high temperatures that are already affecting society and ecosystems.” 2. Evidence says that humans are speeding up climate change. According to the evidence from the United States EPA Climate Change Site, says “changes in the climate can be linked to the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, caused largely by people burning fossil fuels to generate electricity, heat and cool buildings, and power vehicles.” 3. Climate change is likely to affect our society and our world having “an increase or decrease rainfall, influence agricultural crop yields, affect human health, cause changes to forests and other ecosystems, or even impact our energy supply (United States EPA Climate Change Site).” Also according to the United Nations Climate Change Information Kit Site, “Food security is unlikely to be threatened at the global level, but some regions are likely to experience food shortages and hunger. Water resources will be affected as precipitation an evaporation patterns change around the world.” Also I was asked to look up why some people are skeptical about climate change. I found out that people are skeptical about climate change because according to the Heartlands Institute Website, “Climate is always changing, and every scientist knows this. Our emissions and alterations of the landscape are surely having impacts on climate, though they are often local or regional (like heat islands) and small relative to natural variation.” Also, the Heartland Institute Website says, and “concluded concern over the possibility of catastrophic global warming was being manufactured to advance a political agenda. We then took upon ourselves the task of publicizing the scientific uncertainty behind the global warming scare and documenting the high costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions – economic costs as well as the loss of freedom.” I agree with most of the websites listed above and I know that we do have a problem. I think that the pollution we create has a lot to do with climate change. I also think that all the oil and chemical runoffs causes climate change. All the chemicals evaporate into the atmosphere and cause the climate to change. I also think that if the world continues the way it is there might be a lot of problems in the future. I think we can face a food scare and I think we will also lose many species. Specially, animals in the ocean will be affected. I learned that climate change causes coral bleaching. I think in the future climate change will make many species extinct in all parts of the world not just in the hot spots. In fifty years I think the Earth will have a limit of resources we can use due to climate change. Works Cited United States EPA Climate Change Site: http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/index.html United Nations Climate Change Information Kit: http://unfccc.int/resource/iuckit/cckit2001en.pdf http://heartland.org/ideas/global-warming-not-crisis