大象传媒

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What is global warming?

Global warming is often referred to in the news or in conversations about the weather.

Environmental scientist Laura Young explains how human activity is causing changes in the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere and what impact this has on the climate and living things.

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Watch this video to find out more

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Definition

Global warming is the unusually fast increase in the Earth鈥檚 average surface temperature and is caused by like carbon dioxide and methane being released into the atmosphere, known as .

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Summary

An illustration of the sun.
  • The greenhouse gases in our atmosphere help to keep Earth warm by absorbing heat from the Sun, trapping it like a blanket. The increasing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere means that more heat is being trapped and Earth is getting warmer, like a greenhouse.
  • Over the past 100 or so years, the temperature of the Earth has increased by an average of between 1 and 1.2 degrees Celsius.
  • To slow down global warming we need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. We can do this by switching to renewable energy sources, as well as making small changes like using public transport and buying fewer items.
An illustration of the sun.
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Teacher notes

A set of teacher notes are available. They include geography and science curricula links, and suggest how the clips might be used in a classroom.

Download or view the briefing notes online.

THE REGENERATORS

Green Themes Explained - Geography teacher notes

THE REGENERATORS

Green Themes Explained - Science teacher notes

The teacher notes are designed to be used electronically but if printing is needed these greyscale versions will use less ink: and .

This page was published in July 2022.

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