ELI5 Climate Change Warmer

This chemical compound is the primary greenhouse gas and driver of climate change. It’s an integral part of life cycles on earth, produced through animal respiration (including human respiration) and absorbed by plants to fuel their growth, to name just two ways.

• Carbon Dioxide

• Methane

• Global warming

• Emissions

These are chemical compounds found in the Earth’s atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other human-made gases. These allow much of the solar radiation to enter the atmosphere, where the energy strikes the Earth and warms the surface.

• Carbon Dioxide

• CFCs

• Climate

• Greenhouse gas

These are sources of non-renewable energy, formed from the remains of living organisms that were buried millions of years ago. Burning these like coal and oil to produce energy is where the majority of greenhouse gases originate.

• Coal

• Fossil fuels

• a straight-chain alkane composed of 8 carbon atoms

• Octane

This is caused by two major factors. First, more water is released into the ocean as glaciers and land ice melts. Second, the ocean expands as ocean temperatures increase

• Global warming

• Melting glaciers

• Sea-level rise

• Coastal erosion

By the end of 2014, these were estimated to make up almost 28% of the world’s power generating capacity, enough to supply almost 23% of global electricity. They don’t produce the greenhouse gases driving climate change.

• Global average temperature

• Renewable energy

• Coal, oil and gas

• Wind power

First set up in 1988 under two UN organizations, this organization surveys the research on climate change happening all around the world and reports to the public about the current state of our scientific knowledge.

• PPM

• CO2

• INDC

• IPCC

A chemical compound that’s the main component of natural gas, a common fossil fuel source. Just like carbon dioxide, it is a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the atmosphere.

• CO2

• Methane

• CFC

• Emissions

This refers to an action that will reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions, such as planting trees in order to absorb more CO2. It can also include developing and deploying new technologies, using renewable energies like wind and solar, or making older equipment more energy efficient.

• Mitigation

• Elimination

• Standardization

• Organization

This is the average of weather patterns over a longer period of time (usually 30 or more years).

• Weather

• Seasons

• Climate

• climate change