What is the climate anyway?
The Pocket Oxford Dictionary defines climate as the "prevailing weather conditions of an area". Basically, climate is the long-term weather tendencies in any given area - or in the world as a whole. It's not about the weather on any given day, it's about the average weather over a long period of time.
So what's climate change?
When people talk about climate change, they almost always mean the recent warming of the whole Earth. This has already caused serious problems in many countries, including the recent cyclone that devastated Burma. Closer to home, the downpours that caused last year's flooding in Oxfordshire were also linked to climate change.
Why is it happening?
Because of us. Human beings are the main cause of climate change through our everyday activities. Gases emitted by human activities such as driving cars or heating our homes, go into the atmosphere and stop heat from escaping./p>
Heat from the sun can get through the layer of gases - known as greenhouse gases - but they can't escape again. Heat is trapped and the temperature of the Earth increases.
There's a simple explanation on the WWF website: www.wwf.org.uk/climatechange/explained.asp According to Defra, the government department that deals with environmental issues: "The Earth has warmed by 0.74 degrees C over the last hundred years. Around 0.4 degrees C of this warming has occurred since the 1970s."
Less than one degree doesn't sound too bad. Isn't this all a fuss about nothing?
Almost all the world's scientists agree that even one degree is a very big problem and action is needed. Writer Mark Lynas says in his book Six Degrees: "In a world which is one degree warmer overall, the western United States could once again be plagued by perennial droughts - devastating agriculture and driving out inhabitants on a scale far larger than the 1930s [Dust Bowl] calamity [...] As powerful dust storms and sandstorms turn day into night across thousands of miles of former prairie, farmsteads, roads and even entire towns will find themselves engulfed by blowing sand."
Different parts of the world would experience a one degree rise in different ways, but the whole planet would be adversely affected and global food shortages could result.
But the even more pressing issue is that if humans do not reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases immediately, one degree might just be the start.
So how do we stop it?
Humans are the cause of climate change and we can be the solution. We need to begin living in a more energy-efficient way and reducing our individual carbon emissions. You can do a lot to reduce your carbon emissions - and your bills - by insulating your home properly and buying more energy-efficient appliances. But the action which will make the most difference of all is to stop flying.