Essay on Global Warming in English (100,150, 200, 250, 300, 500 Words)

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global warming and climate change essay 300 words

Global warming means the Earth is getting hotter. This happens because of things like pollution from cars and factories. These pollutants are called greenhouse gases, and they make the Earth's air trap more heat from the sun. One major greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide, which comes from burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. When trees are cut down and forests disappear, that's bad too, because trees help clean the air.

Because of global warming, some big problems are happening. Ice at the North and South Poles is melting, which causes the sea levels to rise. When the sea level goes up, it can flood coastal areas, making it hard for people to live there. Also, the Earth's weather is getting crazy. There are more hurricanes, droughts, and floods. These extreme weather events can be dangerous and damage homes and farms.

But don't worry! People all over the world are working to stop global warming. They use clean and renewable energy sources like the sun and wind instead of burning fossil fuels. They also make agreements like the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol to help reduce pollution. These agreements are like promises between countries to protect the planet.

Understanding global warming is important because it harms the environment and makes life harder for everyone. We need to take care of our planet by using clean energy and protecting forests. It's like being a good friend to the Earth. So, let's all work together to keep the Earth cool and safe for the future.

Why is the Essay on Global Warming Important for Your Exams? 

The essay on global warming is important for your exams for several reasons. First, it helps you learn about a critical issue that affects our planet. Global warming is the increase in Earth's temperature due to human activities like burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Knowing about this topic is essential because it's a significant environmental problem that impacts all of us.

Second, writing an essay on global warming can improve your research and writing skills. It teaches you how to gather information, organize your thoughts, and present them in a clear and structured way. These skills are valuable for your education and future career.

Third, understanding global warming is relevant to many subjects. It connects to science, as it involves the Earth's climate and ecosystems. It's also essential for geography, as it affects landscapes and weather patterns. In addition, it's a crucial aspect of social studies, as global warming has economic and political implications.

Fourth, addressing global warming is a global concern. International agreements like the Paris Agreement involve many countries working together to combat climate change. Knowing about these agreements and the actions taken by different nations can help you understand how the world is coming together to solve a shared problem.

Fifth, discussing global warming in your exams can demonstrate your awareness and concern for the environment. It shows that you're informed about the challenges our planet faces and that you're engaged in finding solutions.

Long and Short Essay on Global Warming

Essay on global warming 1 (100 words) .

Global warming is a big problem worldwide. Earth is getting hotter because it traps the Sun's heat, and there's too much carbon dioxide in the air. This is causing more and more problems for people. It's a serious issue that needs our attention. We must understand what causes it and how it harms us. We also need to find ways to fix it. We should work together to save our planet and make it a better place to live.

Essay on Global Warming 2 (150 words)

Global warming is a major issue affecting our planet. It's making the Earth's surface temperature go up. Experts say that in the next 50 to 100 years, the temperature will rise a lot, causing big problems for everyone. The main reason for this is the increase in carbon dioxide in the air.

Carbon dioxide levels go up when we use things like coal and oil for energy, and when we cut down trees (deforestation). Trees are important because they absorb carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. When there are fewer trees, carbon dioxide levels increase.

Higher temperatures cause many problems like hotter oceans, melting glaciers, floods, stronger storms, and more diseases. It's a serious issue that affects us all. To tackle it, we need to use cleaner energy sources and protect our forests. Working together, we can make a difference and keep our planet safe for the future.

Essay on Global Warming 3 (200 words) 

Global warming is when the Earth's temperature keeps going up. This happens because of things we do without even noticing, like burning fossil fuels and using too much electricity. Global warming is a big problem for our planet, and it's getting worse every day. It's like a threat that's making life harder on Earth.

To fix global warming, we first need to understand what's causing it. One of the main reasons is the extra carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. This comes from things like cutting down trees and using coal, oil, and gas for energy. It's also from burning gasoline in cars. All of this makes the Earth's temperature rise.

When the Earth gets hotter, it causes problems like rising sea levels, floods, storms, and even more diseases. It's a big issue, and it affects all of us. We can't blame just one person or country for this. Everyone is a part of the problem, so we all need to work together to solve it.

We need to be aware of global warming and do our best to stop it. This means using cleaner energy sources and being more careful with our planet. It's a team effort, and if we all pitch in, we can make a difference and make the Earth a better place to live.

Essay on Global Warming 4 (250 words) 

Global warming is a serious and ongoing increase in the Earth's temperature. It's a huge problem worldwide and is mainly caused by the rise in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. If we don't take immediate action as a global community, it could lead to catastrophic consequences, even threatening life on Earth.

The effects of global warming are becoming more dangerous every day. It's responsible for rising sea levels, floods, erratic weather patterns, storms, epidemics, food shortages, and loss of life. To combat this issue, we need to raise awareness at the individual level. People must understand what global warming is, what causes it, and the harm it brings. By making people worldwide aware, we can work together to restore the Earth's natural balance and ensure life can continue as usual.

To address global warming, we should reduce our carbon dioxide emissions. This means using less oil, coal, and gas, protecting trees (as they absorb carbon dioxide and provide oxygen), and using electricity more wisely. Small changes in our daily lives, practiced worldwide, can make a big difference in lessening the impact of global warming and ultimately stopping it. Everyone needs to take responsibility and contribute to a safer, healthier planet for current and future generations.

Essay on Global Warming 5 (300 words) 

Global warming is the gradual heating of the Earth's surface due to an increase in carbon dioxide gas in the environment. It's a major issue that requires worldwide action. As the Earth's temperature steadily rises, it poses various threats and disrupts the balance of nature. This temperature rise brings about lasting changes in our climate, affecting the environment.

The increase in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels has far-reaching consequences. It leads to heatwaves, sudden and powerful storms, unpredictable cyclones, damage to the ozone layer, floods, heavy rainfall, droughts, food shortages, diseases, and even loss of life. This problem is largely driven by the continuous burning of fossil fuels, the use of fertilizers, deforestation, excessive electricity consumption, and certain gases used in refrigeration. If we don't take action to control CO2 emissions, the harmful effects of global warming are predicted to worsen by 2020.

The increased CO2 levels cause a phenomenon known as the greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases like water vapor, CO2, methane, and ozone absorb heat energy, which is then radiated in all directions, including back toward the Earth's surface. This results in the Earth's surface warming up, contributing to global warming.

To combat the life-threatening effects of global warming, we must change our habits. We need to stop activities that increase CO2 and other greenhouse gases, leading to the greenhouse effect and global warming. This includes ending deforestation, reducing electricity consumption, and halting the burning of wood and other fossil fuels. These are critical steps to ensure a healthier and safer planet for ourselves and future generations. By working together and making these changes, we can address the global warming crisis and protect our world.

Essay on Global Warming 6 (500 words) 

Global warming is an enormous environmental problem that we must address urgently and permanently. It refers to the continuous and gradual increase in the Earth's surface temperature. This issue requires global cooperation and discussion to mitigate its effects, as it has already disrupted the delicate balance of nature, impacted biodiversity, and significantly altered our planet's climate over several decades.

The primary culprits behind global warming are greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane. These gases trap heat in the Earth's atmosphere, causing a rise in temperatures. This, in turn, leads to rising sea levels, melting ice caps and glaciers, and unpredictable climate changes, all of which pose serious threats to life on our planet. The demand for an improved standard of living has driven an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, especially since the mid-20th century.

Statistical data reveal alarming trends, with years like 1983, 1987, 1988, 1989, and 1991 being recorded as the warmest six years of the past century. Such an increase in global warming has led to unforeseen natural disasters, including floods, cyclones, tsunamis, droughts, landslides, ice melting, food shortages, epidemic diseases, and even loss of life. These events disrupt the natural balance of our planet and signal a potential threat to life as we know it.

The global warming process intensifies as more water evaporates from the Earth's surface into the atmosphere. This excess water vapor further contributes to the greenhouse effect, causing temperatures to rise. Additionally, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels, the use of fertilizers, and the emission of gases like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), tropospheric ozone, and nitrous oxide are also responsible for global warming.

The root causes of these problems can be traced back to technological advancements, population growth, an increasing demand for industrial expansion, deforestation, and the prioritization of urbanization. As our population continues to grow, we consume more resources, leading to higher emissions of greenhouse gases and a depletion of the Earth's natural resources.

To address global warming and its devastating effects, we must take immediate and collective action. The time for inaction has long passed. We must prioritize sustainability, renewable energy sources, afforestation, and reforestation to reduce CO2 levels and mitigate the impact of global warming. Additionally, responsible and conscious consumption, efficient energy use, and reducing waste are critical steps in the fight against this crisis.

Education and awareness are also key. People need to understand the causes and consequences of global warming, prompting a change in behavior and the adoption of more environmentally friendly practices. Governments, businesses, and individuals must work together to protect our planet and secure a sustainable future for generations to come. The solution to global warming requires a global commitment to change our way of life and preserve the Earth for future generations.

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Grinnell Glacier shrinkage

How does global warming work?

Where does global warming occur in the atmosphere, why is global warming a social problem, where does global warming affect polar bears.

Global warming illustration

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  • U.S. Department of Transportation - Global Warming: A Science Overview
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Grinnell Glacier shrinkage

Human activity affects global surface temperatures by changing Earth ’s radiative balance—the “give and take” between what comes in during the day and what Earth emits at night. Increases in greenhouse gases —i.e., trace gases such as carbon dioxide and methane that absorb heat energy emitted from Earth’s surface and reradiate it back—generated by industry and transportation cause the atmosphere to retain more heat, which increases temperatures and alters precipitation patterns.

Global warming, the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near Earth’s surface over the past one to two centuries, happens mostly in the troposphere , the lowest level of the atmosphere, which extends from Earth’s surface up to a height of 6–11 miles. This layer contains most of Earth’s clouds and is where living things and their habitats and weather primarily occur.

Continued global warming is expected to impact everything from energy use to water availability to crop productivity throughout the world. Poor countries and communities with limited abilities to adapt to these changes are expected to suffer disproportionately. Global warming is already being associated with increases in the incidence of severe and extreme weather, heavy flooding , and wildfires —phenomena that threaten homes, dams, transportation networks, and other facets of human infrastructure. Learn more about how the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, released in 2021, describes the social impacts of global warming.

Polar bears live in the Arctic , where they use the region’s ice floes as they hunt seals and other marine mammals . Temperature increases related to global warming have been the most pronounced at the poles, where they often make the difference between frozen and melted ice. Polar bears rely on small gaps in the ice to hunt their prey. As these gaps widen because of continued melting, prey capture has become more challenging for these animals.

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global warming , the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures near the surface of Earth over the past one to two centuries. Climate scientists have since the mid-20th century gathered detailed observations of various weather phenomena (such as temperatures, precipitation , and storms) and of related influences on climate (such as ocean currents and the atmosphere’s chemical composition). These data indicate that Earth’s climate has changed over almost every conceivable timescale since the beginning of geologic time and that human activities since at least the beginning of the Industrial Revolution have a growing influence over the pace and extent of present-day climate change .

Giving voice to a growing conviction of most of the scientific community , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), published in 2021, noted that the best estimate of the increase in global average surface temperature between 1850 and 2019 was 1.07 °C (1.9 °F). An IPCC special report produced in 2018 noted that human beings and their activities have been responsible for a worldwide average temperature increase between 0.8 and 1.2 °C (1.4 and 2.2 °F) since preindustrial times, and most of the warming over the second half of the 20th century could be attributed to human activities.

AR6 produced a series of global climate predictions based on modeling five greenhouse gas emission scenarios that accounted for future emissions, mitigation (severity reduction) measures, and uncertainties in the model projections. Some of the main uncertainties include the precise role of feedback processes and the impacts of industrial pollutants known as aerosols , which may offset some warming. The lowest-emissions scenario, which assumed steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beginning in 2015, predicted that the global mean surface temperature would increase between 1.0 and 1.8 °C (1.8 and 3.2 °F) by 2100 relative to the 1850–1900 average. This range stood in stark contrast to the highest-emissions scenario, which predicted that the mean surface temperature would rise between 3.3 and 5.7 °C (5.9 and 10.2 °F) by 2100 based on the assumption that greenhouse gas emissions would continue to increase throughout the 21st century. The intermediate-emissions scenario, which assumed that emissions would stabilize by 2050 before declining gradually, projected an increase of between 2.1 and 3.5 °C (3.8 and 6.3 °F) by 2100.

Many climate scientists agree that significant societal, economic, and ecological damage would result if the global average temperature rose by more than 2 °C (3.6 °F) in such a short time. Such damage would include increased extinction of many plant and animal species, shifts in patterns of agriculture , and rising sea levels. By 2015 all but a few national governments had begun the process of instituting carbon reduction plans as part of the Paris Agreement , a treaty designed to help countries keep global warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preindustrial levels in order to avoid the worst of the predicted effects. Whereas authors of the 2018 special report noted that should carbon emissions continue at their present rate, the increase in average near-surface air temperature would reach 1.5 °C sometime between 2030 and 2052, authors of the AR6 report suggested that this threshold would be reached by 2041 at the latest.

Combination shot of Grinnell Glacier taken from the summit of Mount Gould, Glacier National Park, Montana in the years 1938, 1981, 1998 and 2006.

The AR6 report also noted that the global average sea level had risen by some 20 cm (7.9 inches) between 1901 and 2018 and that sea level rose faster in the second half of the 20th century than in the first half. It also predicted, again depending on a wide range of scenarios, that the global average sea level would rise by different amounts by 2100 relative to the 1995–2014 average. Under the report’s lowest-emission scenario, sea level would rise by 28–55 cm (11–21.7 inches), whereas, under the intermediate emissions scenario, sea level would rise by 44–76 cm (17.3–29.9 inches). The highest-emissions scenario suggested that sea level would rise by 63–101 cm (24.8–39.8 inches) by 2100.

global warming and climate change essay 300 words

The scenarios referred to above depend mainly on future concentrations of certain trace gases, called greenhouse gases , that have been injected into the lower atmosphere in increasing amounts through the burning of fossil fuels for industry, transportation , and residential uses. Modern global warming is the result of an increase in magnitude of the so-called greenhouse effect , a warming of Earth’s surface and lower atmosphere caused by the presence of water vapour , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxides , and other greenhouse gases. In 2014 the IPCC first reported that concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxides in the atmosphere surpassed those found in ice cores dating back 800,000 years.

Of all these gases, carbon dioxide is the most important, both for its role in the greenhouse effect and for its role in the human economy. It has been estimated that, at the beginning of the industrial age in the mid-18th century, carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere were roughly 280 parts per million (ppm). By the end of 2022 they had risen to 419 ppm, and, if fossil fuels continue to be burned at current rates, they are projected to reach 550 ppm by the mid-21st century—essentially, a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations in 300 years.

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A vigorous debate is in progress over the extent and seriousness of rising surface temperatures, the effects of past and future warming on human life, and the need for action to reduce future warming and deal with its consequences. This article provides an overview of the scientific background related to the subject of global warming. It considers the causes of rising near-surface air temperatures, the influencing factors, the process of climate research and forecasting, and the possible ecological and social impacts of rising temperatures. For an overview of the public policy developments related to global warming occurring since the mid-20th century, see global warming policy . For a detailed description of Earth’s climate, its processes, and the responses of living things to its changing nature, see climate . For additional background on how Earth’s climate has changed throughout geologic time , see climatic variation and change . For a full description of Earth’s gaseous envelope, within which climate change and global warming occur, see atmosphere .

Essay on Global Warming – Causes and Solutions

500+ words essay on global warming.

Global Warming is a term almost everyone is familiar with. But, its meaning is still not clear to most of us. So, Global warming refers to the gradual rise in the overall temperature of the atmosphere of the Earth. There are various activities taking place which have been increasing the temperature gradually. Global warming is melting our ice glaciers rapidly. This is extremely harmful to the earth as well as humans. It is quite challenging to control global warming; however, it is not unmanageable. The first step in solving any problem is identifying the cause of the problem. Therefore, we need to first understand the causes of global warming that will help us proceed further in solving it. In this essay on Global Warming, we will see the causes and solutions of Global Warming.

essay on global warming

Causes of Global Warming

Global warming has become a grave problem which needs undivided attention. It is not happening because of a single cause but several causes. These causes are both natural as well as manmade. The natural causes include the release of greenhouses gases which are not able to escape from earth, causing the temperature to increase.

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Further, volcanic eruptions are also responsible for global warming. That is to say, these eruptions release tons of carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming. Similarly, methane is also one big issue responsible for global warming.

global warming and climate change essay 300 words

So, when one of the biggest sources of absorption of carbon dioxide will only disappear, there will be nothing left to regulate the gas. Thus, it will result in global warming. Steps must be taken immediately to stop global warming and make the earth better again.

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Global Warming Solutions

As stated earlier, it might be challenging but it is not entirely impossible. Global warming can be stopped when combined efforts are put in. For that, individuals and governments, both have to take steps towards achieving it. We must begin with the reduction of greenhouse gas.

Furthermore, they need to monitor the consumption of gasoline. Switch to a hybrid car and reduce the release of carbon dioxide. Moreover, citizens can choose public transport or carpool together. Subsequently, recycling must also be encouraged.

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For instance, when you go shopping, carry your own cloth bag. Another step you can take is to limit the use of electricity which will prevent the release of carbon dioxide. On the government’s part, they must regulate industrial waste and ban them from emitting harmful gases in the air. Deforestation must be stopped immediately and planting of trees must be encouraged.

In short, all of us must realize the fact that our earth is not well. It needs to treatment and we can help it heal. The present generation must take up the responsibility of stopping global warming in order to prevent the suffering of future generations. Therefore, every little step, no matter how small carries a lot of weight and is quite significant in stopping global warming.

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FAQs on Global Warming

Q.1 List the causes of Global Warming.

A.1 There are various causes of global warming both natural and manmade. The natural one includes a greenhouse gas, volcanic eruption, methane gas and more. Next up, manmade causes are deforestation, mining, cattle rearing, fossil fuel burning and more.

Q.2 How can one stop Global Warming?

A.2 Global warming can be stopped by a joint effort by the individuals and the government. Deforestation must be banned and trees should be planted more. The use of automobiles must be limited and recycling must be encouraged.

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Our Future Is Now - A Climate Change Essay by Francesca Minicozzi, '21

Francesca Minicozzi (class of 2021) is a Writing/Biology major who plans to study medicine after graduation. She wrote this essay on climate change for WR 355/Travel Writing, which she took while studying abroad in Newcastle in spring 2020. Although the coronavirus pandemic curtailed Francesca’s time abroad, her months in Newcastle prompted her to learn more about climate change. Terre Ryan Associate Professor, Writing Department

Our Future Is Now

By Francesca Minicozzi, '21 Writing and Biology Major

 “If you don’t mind me asking, how is the United States preparing for climate change?” my flat mate, Zac, asked me back in March, when we were both still in Newcastle. He and I were accustomed to asking each other about the differences between our home countries; he came from Cambridge, while I originated in Long Island, New York. This was one of our numerous conversations about issues that impact our generation, which we usually discussed while cooking dinner in our communal kitchen. In the moment of our conversation, I did not have as strong an answer for him as I would have liked. Instead, I informed him of the few changes I had witnessed within my home state of New York.

Francesca Minicozzi, '21

Zac’s response was consistent with his normal, diplomatic self. “I have been following the BBC news in terms of the climate crisis for the past few years. The U.K. has been working hard to transition to renewable energy sources. Similar to the United States, here in the United Kingdom we have converted over to solar panels too. My home does not have solar panels, but a lot of our neighbors have switched to solar energy in the past few years.”

“Our two countries are similar, yet so different,” I thought. Our conversation continued as we prepared our meals, with topics ranging from climate change to the upcoming presidential election to Britain’s exit from the European Union. However, I could not shake the fact that I knew so little about a topic so crucial to my generation.

After I abruptly returned home from the United Kingdom because of the global pandemic, my conversation with my flat mate lingered in my mind. Before the coronavirus surpassed climate change headlines, I had seen the number of internet postings regarding protests to protect the planet dramatically increase. Yet the idea of our planet becoming barren and unlivable in a not-so-distant future had previously upset me to the point where a part of me refused to deal with it. After I returned from studying abroad, I decided to educate myself on the climate crisis.

My quest for climate change knowledge required a thorough understanding of the difference between “climate change” and “global warming.” Climate change is defined as “a pattern of change affecting global or regional climate,” based on “average temperature and rainfall measurements” as well as the frequency of extreme weather events. 1   These varied temperature and weather events link back to both natural incidents and human activity. 2   Likewise, the term global warming was coined “to describe climate change caused by humans.” 3   Not only that, but global warming is most recently attributed to an increase in “global average temperature,” mainly due to greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans. 4

I next questioned why the term “climate change” seemed to take over the term “global warming” in the United States. According to Frank Luntz, a leading Republican consultant, the term “global warming” functions as a rather intimidating phrase. During George W. Bush’s first presidential term, Luntz argued in favor of using the less daunting phrase “climate change” in an attempt to overcome the environmental battle amongst Democrats and Republicans. 5   Since President Bush’s term, Luntz remains just one political consultant out of many politicians who has recognized the need to address climate change. In an article from 2019, Luntz proclaimed that political parties aside, the climate crisis affects everyone. Luntz argued that politicians should steer clear of trying to communicate “the complicated science of climate change,” and instead engage voters by explaining how climate change personally impacts citizens with natural disasters such as hurricanes, tornadoes, and forest fires. 6   He even suggested that a shift away from words like “sustainability” would gear Americans towards what they really want: a “cleaner, safer, healthier” environment. 7

The idea of a cleaner and heathier environment remains easier said than done. The Paris Climate Agreement, introduced in 2015, began the United Nations’ “effort to combat global climate change.” 8   This agreement marked a global initiative to “limit global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels,” while simultaneously “pursuing means to limit the increase to 1.5 degrees.” 9    Every country on earth has joined together in this agreement for the common purpose of saving our planet. 10   So, what could go wrong here? As much as this sounds like a compelling step in the right direction for climate change, President Donald Trump thought otherwise. In June 2017, President Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement with his proclamation of climate change as a “’hoax’ perpetrated by China.” 11   President Trump continued to question the scientific facts behind climate change, remaining an advocate for the expansion of domestic fossil fuel production. 12   He reversed environmental policies implemented by former President Barack Obama to reduce fossil fuel use. 13

Trump’s actions against the Paris Agreement, however, fail to represent the beliefs of Americans as a whole. The majority of American citizens feel passionate about the fight against climate change. To demonstrate their support, some have gone as far as creating initiatives including America’s Pledge and We Are Still In. 14   Although the United States officially exited the Paris Agreement on November 4, 2020, this withdrawal may not survive permanently. 15   According to experts, our new president “could rejoin in as short as a month’s time.” 16   This offers a glimmer of hope.

The Paris Agreement declares that the United States will reduce greenhouse gas emission levels by 26 to 28 percent by the year 2025. 17   As a leader in greenhouse gas emissions, the United States needs to accept the climate crisis for the serious challenge that it presents and work together with other nations. The concept of working coherently with all nations remains rather tricky; however, I remain optimistic. I think we can learn from how other countries have adapted to the increased heating of our planet. During my recent study abroad experience in the United Kingdom, I was struck by Great Britain’s commitment to combating climate change.

Since the United Kingdom joined the Paris Agreement, the country targets a “net-zero” greenhouse gas emission for 2050. 18   This substantial alteration would mark an 80% reduction of greenhouse gases from 1990, if “clear, stable, and well-designed policies are implemented without interruption.” 19   In order to stay on top of reducing emissions, the United Kingdom tracks electricity and car emissions, “size of onshore and offshore wind farms,” amount of homes and “walls insulated, and boilers upgraded,” as well as the development of government policies, including grants for electric vehicles. 20   A strong grip on this data allows the United Kingdom to target necessary modifications that keep the country on track for 2050. In my brief semester in Newcastle, I took note of these significant changes. The city of Newcastle is small enough that many students and faculty are able to walk or bike to campus and nearby essential shops. However, when driving is unavoidable, the majority of the vehicles used are electric, and many British citizens place a strong emphasis on carpooling to further reduce emissions. The United Kingdom’s determination to severely reduce greenhouse emissions is ambitious and particularly admirable, especially as the United States struggles to shy away from its dependence on fossil fuels.

So how can we, as Americans, stand together to combat global climate change? Here are five adjustments Americans can make to their homes and daily routines that can dramatically make a difference:

  • Stay cautious of food waste. Studies demonstrate that “Americans throw away up to 40 percent of the food they buy.” 21   By being more mindful of the foods we purchase, opting for leftovers, composting wastes, and donating surplus food to those in need, we can make an individual difference that impacts the greater good. 22   
  • Insulate your home. Insulation functions as a “cost-effective and accessible” method to combat climate change. 23   Homes with modern insulation reduce energy required to heat them, leading to a reduction of emissions and an overall savings; in comparison, older homes can “lose up to 35 percent of heat through their walls.” 24   
  • Switch to LED Lighting. LED stands for “light-emitting diodes,” which use “90 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs and half as much as compact fluorescents.” 25   LED lights create light without producing heat, and therefore do not waste energy. Additionally, these lights have a longer duration than other bulbs, which means they offer a continuing savings. 26  
  • Choose transportation wisely. Choose to walk or bike whenever the option presents itself. If walking or biking is not an option, use an electric or hybrid vehicle which emits less harmful gases. Furthermore, reduce the number of car trips taken, and carpool with others when applicable. 
  • Finally, make your voice heard. The future of our planet remains in our hands, so we might as well use our voices to our advantage. Social media serves as a great platform for this. Moreover, using social media to share helpful hints to combat climate change within your community or to promote an upcoming protest proves beneficial in the long run. If we collectively put our voices to good use, together we can advocate for change.

As many of us are stuck at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, these suggestions are slightly easier to put into place. With numerous “stay-at-home” orders in effect, Americans have the opportunity to make significant achievements for climate change. Personally, I have taken more precautions towards the amount of food consumed within my household during this pandemic. I have been more aware of food waste, opting for leftovers when too much food remains. Additionally, I have realized how powerful my voice is as a young college student. Now is the opportunity for Americans to share how they feel about climate change. During this unprecedented time, our voice is needed now more than ever in order to make a difference.

However, on a much larger scale, the coronavirus outbreak has shed light on reducing global energy consumption. Reductions in travel, both on the roads and in the air, have triggered a drop in emission rates. In fact, the International Energy Agency predicts a 6 percent decrease in energy consumption around the globe for this year alone. 27   This drop is “equivalent to losing the entire energy demand of India.” 28   Complete lockdowns have lowered the global demand for electricity and slashed CO2 emissions. However, in New York City, the shutdown has only decreased carbon dioxide emissions by 10 percent. 29   This proves that a shift in personal behavior is simply not enough to “fix the carbon emission problem.” 30   Climate policies aimed to reduce fossil fuel production and promote clean technology will be crucial steppingstones to ameliorating climate change effects. Our current reduction of greenhouse gas emissions serves as “the sort of reduction we need every year until net-zero emissions are reached around 2050.” 31   From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, politicians came together for the common good of protecting humanity; this demonstrates that when necessary, global leaders are capable of putting humankind above the economy. 32

After researching statistics comparing the coronavirus to climate change, I thought back to the moment the virus reached pandemic status. I knew that a greater reason underlay all of this global turmoil. Our globe is in dire need of help, and the coronavirus reminds the world of what it means to work together. This pandemic marks a turning point in global efforts to slow down climate change. The methods we enact towards not only stopping the spread of the virus, but slowing down climate change, will ultimately depict how humanity will arise once this pandemic is suppressed. The future of our home planet lies in how we treat it right now. 

  • “Climate Change: What Do All the Terms Mean?,” BBC News (BBC, May 1, 2019), https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48057733 )
  • Ibid. 
  • Kate Yoder, “Frank Luntz, the GOP's Message Master, Calls for Climate Action,” Grist (Grist, July 26, 2019), https://grist.org/article/the-gops-most-famous-messaging-strategist-calls-for-climate-action
  • Melissa Denchak, “Paris Climate Agreement: Everything You Need to Know,” NRDC, April 29, 2020, https://www.nrdc.org/stories/paris-climate-agreement-everything-you-need-know)
  • “Donald J. Trump's Foreign Policy Positions,” Council on Foreign Relations (Council on Foreign Relations), accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.cfr.org/election2020/candidate-tracker/donald-j.-trump?gclid=CjwKCAjw4871BRAjEiwAbxXi21cneTRft_doA5if60euC6QCL7sr-Jwwv76IkgWaUTuyJNx9EzZzRBoCdjsQAvD_BwE#climate and energy )
  • David Doniger, “Paris Climate Agreement Explained: Does Congress Need to Sign Off?,” NRDC, December 15, 2016, https://www.nrdc.org/experts/david-doniger/paris-climate-agreement-explained-does-congress-need-sign )
  • “How the UK Is Progressing,” Committee on Climate Change, March 9, 2020, https://www.theccc.org.uk/what-is-climate-change/reducing-carbon-emissions/how-the-uk-is-progressing/)
  • Ibid.  
  • “Top 10 Ways You Can Fight Climate Change,” Green America, accessed May 7, 2020, https://www.greenamerica.org/your-green-life/10-ways-you-can-fight-climate-change )
  • Matt McGrath, “Climate Change and Coronavirus: Five Charts about the Biggest Carbon Crash,” BBC News (BBC, May 5, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/science-environment-52485712 )

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Essay on World Environment Day: 100, 200, and 300 words

global warming and climate change essay 300 words

  • Updated on  
  • Nov 15, 2023

Essay on world environment day

As we observe World Environment Day on 5th June each year, it is a reminder of the deteriorating environment and the urgent need to take effective measures. As inhabitants of the planet Earth, it is our responsibility to use resources wisely and take measures to reduce waste. In addition, it is our duty to plant trees and shift to non-renewable resources to reduce pollution and avoid natural calamities. Moreover, the day also reminds us to foster environmental consciousness and create a sustainable world for all. Thus, to put these thoughts into words, we have provided 3 samples for an essay on World Environment Day for your reference. 

Table of Contents

  • 1 Essay on World Environment Day: 100 words
  • 2 Essay on World Environment Day: 200 words
  • 3 Essay on World Environment Day: 300 words

Also Read: Essay on Environmental Pollution

Essay on World Environment Day: 100 words

Let us look at a 100-word essay on World Environment Day:

World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5th of June each year. It is a global initiative to create awareness about environmental degradation. Also, it aims to encourage actions to reduce ecological destruction around us. This day reminds us of our responsibility to protect our planet and work towards a sustainable environment. We can help in achieving this goal by planting trees, reducing waste, and conserving water. Also, learning about renewable and non-renewable resources, pollution, population, and sustainable use of resources will help us preserve the environment. 
Therefore, on World Environment Day let us unite in the commitment to create a sustainable future and appreciate the beauty of nature that surrounds us.

Also Read: NCERT Class 8 Geography Chapter 1 Resources

Essay on World Environment Day: 200 words

Further, we have a 200-word essay on World Environment Day for you:

World Environment Day is observed on 5th June annually. It was first celebrated in 1973 after the establishment of this day at the Stockholm Conference in 1972. This day is dedicated to environmental preservation and a sustainable future. On this day, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) raises awareness about , , deforestation, pollution, ozone layer depletion and other environmental issue. In addition, this global organization encourages organizations, communities, and individuals to work toward environmental preservation. 
As students, we can participate in this global initiative by learning about biodiversity, pollution and its types, and climate change. To help us acquire this essential knowledge we have Environmental Science (EVS) in our curriculum. In addition, schools also organize tree-planting drives, clean-up campaigns, seminars, plays, lectures, and eco-friendly projects for students. After gaining the knowledge, we can help create a greener and cleaner world. Also, we can share our knowledge with our parents and friends and request them to use eco-friendly products. 
Therefore, World Environment Day acts as a catalyst for a collective effort to address environmental issues. With this effort, this day acts as a platform to ensure the preservation of air, water, and soil for future generations. 

Also Read: Scope and Importance of Environmental Science in School

Essay on World Environment Day: 300 words

Finally, let us view a 300-word essay on World Environment Day:

World Environment Day was instituted in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to mark the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. UNGA allocated 5th June to be celebrated as a day to generate awareness about environmental and ecological issues and inspire global action. The establishment of World Environment Day was a response to the surging need to address global environmental issues like global warming, ozone layer depletion, melting of glaciers, etc. 

The first World Environment Day was observed on 5th June 1973. In this year, the theme was “Only One Earth”. Keeping up with this practice, each year a specific theme is attached to this day. The themes revolve around global attention to pressing environmental issues. In addition, the themes encourage national and international organizations, corporations, NGOs, and individuals to take meaningful action. 

Thus, to observe World Environment Day we must organize and participate in plantation drives, awareness-raising programs, seminars, and clean-up campaigns. Also, we can pledge to use eco-friendly products. In addition, we can promote the use of green products by preparing skits and plays. In addition, we can minimize our carbon footprint and make sustainable use of resources by reading our Environmental Science (EVS) books. Besides, we can get EVS books from our libraries and learn techniques to work towards sustainability. 

Therefore, acquiring knowledge through books and informative websites will help us challenge climate change, global warming, deforestation, extinction, pollution, etc. We can impart this knowledge to the people around us and ask them to rally for new and innovative ideas to reduce ecological problems. This network of an aware community will help us become global citizens. 
Therefore, we can save our planet Earth by engaging in knowledge sharing on World Environment Day. Let us all come together to transform knowledge into action to create a sustainable future. 

Also Read: How to Prepare for UPSC in 6 Months?

Ans: 5th June of each year is observed as the World or Global Environment Day.

Ans: The first Global Environment Day was celebrated on 5th June 1973.

Ans: It was instituted in 1972. 

Ans: This day was instituted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

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Ankita Singh

Ankita is a history enthusiast with a few years of experience in academic writing. Her love for literature and history helps her curate engaging and informative content for education blog. When not writing, she finds peace in analysing historical and political anectodes.

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Climate Change Essay

500+ words essay on climate change.

Climate change is a major global challenge today, and the world is becoming more vulnerable to this change. Climate change refers to the changes in Earth’s climate condition. It describes the changes in the atmosphere which have taken place over a period ranging from decades to millions of years. A recent report from the United Nations predicted that the average global temperature could increase by 6˚ Celsius at the end of the century. Climate change has an adverse effect on the environment and ecosystem. With the help of this essay, students will get to know the causes and effects of climate change and possible solutions. Also, they will be able to write essays on similar topics and can boost their writing skills.

What Causes Climate Change?

The Earth’s climate has always changed and evolved. Some of these changes have been due to natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires etc., but quite a few of them are due to human activities. Human activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, farming livestock etc., generate an enormous amount of greenhouse gases. This results in the greenhouse effect and global warming which are the major causes of climate change.

Effects of Climate Change

If the current situation of climate change continues in a similar manner, then it will impact all forms of life on the earth. The earth’s temperature will rise, the monsoon patterns will change, sea levels will rise, and storms, volcanic eruptions and natural disasters will occur frequently. The biological and ecological balance of the earth will get disturbed. The environment will get polluted and humans will not be able to get fresh air to breathe and fresh water to drink. Life on earth will come to an end.

Steps to be Taken to Reduce Climate Change

The Government of India has taken many measures to improve the dire situation of Climate Change. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal agency for climate change issues in India. It has initiated several climate-friendly measures, particularly in the area of renewable energy. India took several steps and policy initiatives to create awareness about climate change and help capacity building for adaptation measures. It has initiated a “Green India” programme under which various trees are planted to make the forest land more green and fertile.

We need to follow the path of sustainable development to effectively address the concerns of climate change. We need to minimise the use of fossil fuels, which is the major cause of global warming. We must adopt alternative sources of energy, such as hydropower, solar and wind energy to make a progressive transition to clean energy. Mahatma Gandhi said that “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed”. With this view, we must remodel our outlook and achieve the goal of sustainable development. By adopting clean technologies, equitable distribution of resources and addressing the issues of equity and justice, we can make our developmental process more harmonious with nature.

We hope students liked this essay on Climate Change and gathered useful information on this topic so that they can write essays in their own words. To get more study material related to the CBSE, ICSE, State Board and Competitive exams, keep visiting the BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions on climate change Essay

What are the reasons for climate change.

1. Deforestation 2. Excessive usage of fossil fuels 3. Water, Soil pollution 4. Plastic and other non-biodegradable waste 5. Wildlife and nature extinction

How can we save this climate change situation?

1. Avoid over usage of natural resources 2. Do not use or buy items made from animals 3. Avoid plastic usage and pollution

Are there any natural causes for climate change?

Yes, some of the natural causes for climate change are: 1. Solar variations 2. Volcanic eruption and tsunamis 3. Earth’s orbital changes

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Home / For Educators: Grades 6-12 / Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

Climate Explained: Introductory Essays About Climate Change Topics

Filed under: backgrounders for educators ,.

Climate Explained, a part of Yale Climate Connections, is an essay collection that addresses an array of climate change questions and topics, including why it’s cold outside if global warming is real, how we know that humans are responsible for global warming, and the relationship between climate change and national security.

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global warming and climate change essay 300 words

Climate Change Basics: Five Facts, Ten Words

Backgrounders for Educators

To simplify the scientific complexity of climate change, we focus on communicating five key facts about climate change that everyone should know. 

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Why should we care about climate change?

Having different perspectives about global warming is natural, but the most important thing that anyone should know about climate change is why it matters.  

global warming and climate change essay 300 words

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global warming and climate change essay 300 words

Silhouette of a person walking through a spray of water at sunset with cars and buildings in the background.

Soaring temperatures in New York, July 2010. Photo by Eric Thayer/Reuters

The melting brain

It’s not just the planet and not just our health – the impact of a warming climate extends deep into our cortical fissures.

by Clayton Page Aldern   + BIO

In February 1884, the English art critic and polymath John Ruskin took the lectern at the London Institution for a pair of lectures on the weather. ‘The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century’ was his invective against a particular ‘wind of darkness’ and ‘plague-cloud’ that, in his estimate, had begun to envelope Victorian cities only in recent years. He had been taking careful meteorological measurements, he told a sceptical audience. He railed against the ‘bitterness and malice’ of the new weather in question; and, perhaps more importantly, about how it mirrored a certain societal ‘moral gloom’. You could read in us what you could read in the weather, he suggested.

A painting of a landscape with a blue sea, mountains on the left, and dramatic, swirling clouds in the sky.

July Thundercloud in the Val d’Aosta (1858) by John Ruskin. Courtesy Wikipedia

It was easy that February, and perhaps easy today, to disregard any alleged winds of darkness as the ravings of a madman. Clouds are clouds: even if Ruskin’s existed – which was a question of some contemporaneous debate – it would be untoward to imagine they bore any relationship with the human psyche. As Brian Dillon observed of the cloud lectures in The Paris Review in 2019, it can be hard to tell where Ruskin’s ‘bad weather ends and his own ragged, doleful mood begins.’ In 1886, Ruskin suffered a mental breakdown while giving a talk in Oxford. By the end of his life at the turn of the century, he was widely considered insane. His ramblings on meteorology and the human spirit aren’t exactly treated with the same gravitas as his books on J M W Turner.

And yet, for Ruskin, the clouds weren’t just clouds: they were juiced up by a ‘dense manufacturing mist’, as he’d noted in a diary entry. The plague-clouds embodied the miasma of the Industrial Revolution; the moral gloom was specifically that which arose from the rapid societal and environmental changes that were afoot. Ruskin’s era had seen relentless transformation of pastoral landscapes into industrial hubs. Everything smelled like sulphur and suffering. Soot-filled air, chemical and human waste, the clamour of machinery – these were more than just physical nuisances. They were assaults on the senses, shaping moods and behaviour in ways that were not yet fully understood.

A dark, moody painting of an industrial landscape with smokestacks and rooftops, under a cloudy sky with hints of light in the distance.

Mining Area (1852-1905) by Constantin Meunier. Courtesy Wikipedia

Ruskin believed that the relentless pace of industrialisation, with its cacophony of tools and sprawling factories and environmental destruction, undermined psychological wellbeing: that the mind, much like the body, required a healthy social and physical environment to thrive. This was actually a somewhat new idea. (Isaac Ray, a founder of the American Psychiatric Association, wouldn’t define the idea of ‘mental hygiene’, the precursor to mental health, until 1893.) Instability in the environment, for Ruskin, begot instability in the mind. One reflected the other.

M ore than a century later, as we grapple with a new suite of breakneck environmental changes, the plague-clouds are again darkly literal. Global average surface temperatures have risen by about 1.1°C (2°F) since the pre-industrial era, with most of this warming occurring in the past 40 years. Ice is melting; seas are steadily rising; storms are – well, you know this story. And yet, most frequently, it is still a story of the world out there: the world outside of us. The narrative of climate change is one of meteorological extremes, economic upheaval and biodiversity losses. But perhaps it is worth taking a maybe-mad Ruskin seriously. What of our internal clouds? As the climate crisis warps weather and acidifies oceans and shatters temperature records with frightening regularity, one is tempted to ask if our minds are changing in kind.

Here are some of the most concerning answers in the affirmative. Immigration judges are less likely to rule in favour of asylum seekers on hotter days. On such days, students behave as if they’ve lost a quarter-year of education, relative to temperate days. Warmer school years correspond to lower rates of learning. Temperature predicts the incidence of online hate speech. Domestic violence spikes with warmer weather. Suicide , too.

In baseball, pitchers are more likely to hit batters with their pitches on hot days

But you already know what this feels like. Perhaps you’re more ornery in the heat. Maybe you feel a little slow in the head. It’s harder to focus and easier to act impulsively. Tomes of cognitive neuroscience and behavioural economics research back you up, and it’s not all as dire as domestic violence. Drivers honk their horns more frequently (and lean on them longer) at higher temperatures. Heat predicts more aggressive penalties in sport. In baseball, pitchers are more likely to hit batters with their pitches on hot days – and the outdoor temperature is an even stronger predictor of their tendency to retaliate in this manner if they’ve witnessed an opposing pitcher do the same thing.

In other words: it would appear the plague-clouds are within us, too. They illustrate the interconnectedness of our inner and outer worlds. They betray a certain flimsiness of human agency, painting our decision-making in strokes of environmental influence far bolder than our intuition suggests. And they throw the climate crisis into fresh, stark relief: because, yes, as the climate changes, so do we.

T he London Institution closed in 1912. These days, when you want to inveigh against adverse environmental-mind interactions, you publish a paper in The Lancet . And so that is what 24 mostly British, mostly clinical neurologists did in May 2024, arguing that the ‘incidence, prevalence, and severity of many nervous system conditions’ can be affected by global warming. For these researchers, led by Sanjay Sisodiya, professor of neurology at University College London in the UK, the climate story is indeed one of internal clouds.

In their survey of 332 scientific studies, Sisodiya and his colleagues show that climatic influence extends far beyond behaviour and deep into cortical fissures. Aspects of migraine, stroke, seizure and multiple sclerosis all appear to be temperature dependent. In Taiwan, report the authors, the risk of schizophrenia hospitalisation increases with widening daytime temperature ranges. In California , too, ‘hospital visits for any mental health disorder, self-harm, intentional injury of another person, or homicide’ rise with broader daily temperature swings. In Switzerland , hospitalisations for psychiatric disorders increase with temperature, with the risk particularly pronounced for those with developmental disorders and schizophrenia.

Outside the hospital, climate change is extending the habitable range of disease vectors like ticks, mosquitoes and bats, causing scientists to forecast an increased incidence of vector-borne and zoonotic brain maladies like yellow fever, Zika and cerebral malaria. Outside the healthcare system writ large, a changing environment bears on sensory systems and perception, degrading both sensory information and the biological tools we use to process it. Outside the realm of the even remotely reasonable, warming freshwater brings with it an increased frequency of cyanobacterial blooms, the likes of which release neurotoxins that increase the risk of neurodegenerative diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).

Experiencing natural disasters in utero greatly increases children’s risk of anxiety, depression and ADHD

Indeed, recent studies suggest that climate change may be exacerbating the already substantial burden of neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. In countries with warmer-than-average climates, more intense warming has been linked to a greater increase in Parkinson’s cases and, as Sisodiya et al note, the highest forecasted rates of increase in dementia prevalence are ‘expected to be in countries experiencing the largest effects of climate change’. Similarly, short-term exposure to high temperatures appears to drive up emergency department visits for Alzheimer’s patients. The air we breathe likely plays a complementary role: in Mexico City, for example, where residents are exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter and ozone from a young age, autopsies have revealed progressive Alzheimer’s pathology in 99 per cent of those under the age of 30.

The risks aren’t limited to those alive today. In 2022, for example, an epidemiological study revealed that heat exposure during early pregnancy is associated with a significantly increased risk of children developing schizophrenia, anorexia and other neuropsychiatric conditions. High temperatures during gestation have long been known to delay neurodevelopment in rats. Other scientists have shown that experiencing natural disasters in utero greatly increases children’s risk of anxiety, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorders later in life. Such effects cast the intergenerational responsibilities of the Anthropocene in harsh new light – not least because, as Sisodiya and colleagues write, there is a tremendous ‘global disparity between regions most affected by climate change (both now and in the future) and regions in which the majority of studies are undertaken.’ We don’t know what we don’t know.

What we do know is that the brain is emerging, in study after study, as one of climate change’s most vulnerable landscapes.

It is a useful reorientation. Return to the horn-honking and the baseball pitchers for a moment. A focus on the brain sheds some potential mechanistic light on the case studies and allows us to avoid phrases like ‘wind of darkness’. Higher temperatures, for example, appear to shift functional brain networks – the coordinated behaviour of various regions – toward randomised activity. In extreme heat, scientists have taken note of an overworked dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), the evolutionarily new brain region that the neuroendocrinologist Robert M Sapolsky at Stanford University in the US calls ‘the definitive rational decider in the frontal cortex’. The dlPFC limits the degree to which people make impulsive decisions; disrupted dlPFC activity tends to imply a relatively heightened influence of limbic structures (like the emotionally attuned amygdala) on behaviour. More heat, less rational decision-making.

When extreme heat reaches into your mind and tips your scales toward violence, it is constraining your choices

The physicality of environmental influence on the brain is more widespread than the dlPFC – and spans multiple spatial scales. Heat stress in zebrafish, for example, down-regulates the expression of proteins relevant to synapse construction and neurotransmitter release. In mice, heat also triggers inflammation in the hippocampus, a brain region necessary for memory formation and storage. While neuroinflammation often plays an initially protective role, chronic activation of immune cells – like microglia and astrocytes – can turn poisonous, since pro-inflammatory molecules can damage brain cells in the long run. In people, hyperthermia is associated with decreased blood flow to this region. Psychologists’ observations of waning cognition and waxing aggression at higher temperatures makes a world of sense in the context of such findings.

The nascent field of environmental neuroscience seeks to ‘understand the qualitative and quantitative relationships between the external environment, neurobiology, psychology and behaviour’. Searching for a more specific neologism – since that particular phrase also encompasses environmental exposures like noise, urban development, lighting and crime – we might refer to our budding, integrative field as climatological neuroepidemiology. Or, I don’t know, maybe we need something snappier for TikTok. Neuroclimatology? Ecological neurodynamics?

I tend to prefer: the weight of nature.

The weight forces our hands, as in the case of the behavioural effects highlighted above. When extreme heat reaches into your mind and tips your scales toward violence, it is constraining your choices. By definition, impulsive decisions are rooted in comparatively less reflection than considered decisions: to the extent that a changing climate influences our reactions and decision-making, we should understand it as compromising our perceived free will. The weight of nature is heavy. It displaces us.

It is also a heavy psychological burden to carry. You are likely familiar with the notion of climate anxiety . The phrase, which tends to refer to a near-pathological state of worry and fear of impending environmental destruction, has never sat particularly well with me. Anxiety, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual , is usually couched in terms of ‘excessive’ worry. I’m not convinced there’s anything excessive about seeing the climatic writing on the wall and feeling a sense of doom. Perhaps we ought to consider the climate-anxious as having more developed brains than the rest of the litter – that the Cassandras are the only sane ones left.

I ’m not exactly joking. Neuroscience has begun to study the brains in question, and not for nothing. The midcingulate cortex, a central hub in the brain’s threat-detection circuitry, may hold some clues to the condition’s biological basis: in one 2024 study , for example, researchers at Northern Michigan University in the US found that people who reported higher levels of anxiety about climate change showed distinct patterns of brain structure and function in this region, relative to those with lower levels of climate anxiety – and irrespective of base levels of anxiety writ large. In particular, the climate-anxious brain appears to play host to a smaller midcingulate (in terms of grey matter), but one that’s functionally more connected to other key hubs in the brain’s salience network, a system understood to constantly scan the environment for emotionally relevant information. In the salience network, the midcingulate cortex works hand in hand with limbic structures like the amygdala and insula to prepare the body to respond appropriately to this type of information. In people with climate anxiety, this network may be especially attuned to signals of climate-related threats.

Rather than indicating a deficiency, then, a diminutive midcingulate might reflect a more efficient, finely honed threat-detection system. The brain is well known to prune redundant connections over time, preserving only the most useful neural pathways. Selective sculpting, suggest the Michigan researchers, may allow the climate-anxious brain to process worrisome information more effectively, facilitating rapid communication between the midcingulate and other regions involved in threat anticipation and response. In other words, they write, the climate-anxious midcingulate might be characterised by ‘more efficient wiring’.

This neural sensitivity to potential dangers could be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it may attune some people to the very real perils of the future. The midcingulate is critical for anticipating future threats, and meta-analyses have found the region to be consistently activated when people contemplate unpredictable negative outcomes. Given the looming spectre of climate catastrophe, a hair-trigger threat-detection system could be an adaptive asset.

Climate anxiety is not just a sociocultural phenomenon. It has a theoretically identifiable neural correlate

On the other hand, argue the researchers:

[T]he complexity, uncertainty, as well as temporal and geographical distance of the climate crisis, in addition to its global nature, may lead individuals to deprioritising the risks associated with climate change, or becoming overwhelmed and disengaged – a state sometimes referred to as ‘eco-paralysis’.

An overactive midcingulate has been implicated in clinical anxiety disorders, and the new findings suggest that climate anxiety shares some of the same neural underpinnings. (It’s important to recall that climate anxiety seems to be distinct from generalised anxiety, though, as the brain differences observed in the Michigan study couldn’t be explained by overall anxiety levels.)

Ultimately, while speculative, these findings suggest that climate anxiety is not merely a sociocultural phenomenon, but one with theoretically identifiable neural correlates. They provide a potential biological framework for understanding why some people may be more psychologically impacted by climate change than others. And they raise intriguing questions about whether the brains of the climate anxious are particularly well-suited for confronting the existential threat of a warming world – or whether they are vulnerable to becoming overwhelmed by it. In all cases, though, they illustrate that world reaching inward.

T here is perhaps a flipside to be realised here. A changing climate is seeping into our very neurobiology. What might it mean to orient our neurobiology toward climate change?

Such is the premise of a 2023 article in Nature Climate Change by the neuroscientist Kimberly Doell at the University of Vienna in Austria and her colleagues, who argue that the field is well positioned to inform our understanding of climate-adaptation responses and pro-environmental decision-making. In the decades since Ruskin shook his fists at the sky, environmental neuroscience has begun to probe the reciprocal dance between organisms and their ecological niches. We know now that the textures of modern environments – green spaces, urban sprawl, socioeconomic strata – all leave their mark on the brain. Climate change is no different.

Accordingly, argue Doell et al, scientists and advocates alike can integrate findings from neuroscience to improve communications strategies aimed at spurring climate action. They want to turn the tables, taking advantage of insights from neurobiology and cognitive neuroscience to more effectively design climate solutions – both within ourselves and for society as a whole.

The Anthropocene’s fever dream is already warping our wetware

We have models for this type of approach. Poverty research, for instance, has long implicated socioeconomic conditions with subpar health. In more recent years, neuroscience has reverse-engineered the pathways by which poverty’s various insults – understimulation, toxic exposures, chronic stress – can erode neural architecture and derail cognitive development. Brain science alone won’t solve poverty, yet even a limited understanding of these mechanisms has spurred research in programmes like Head Start, a family-based preschool curriculum that has been shown to boost selective attention (as evident in electrophysiological recordings) and cognitive test scores. While the hydra of structural inequity is not easily slain, neuroscientists have managed to shine some light on poverty’s neural correlates, flag its reversible harms, and design precision remedies accordingly. This same potential, argue Doell and her colleagues, extends to the neuroscience of climate change.

To realise this potential, though, we need to further understand how the Anthropocene’s fever dream is already warping our wetware. Social and behavioural science have begun cataloguing the psychological fallout of a planet in flux, but a neural taxonomy of climate change awaits. The field’s methodological and conceptual arsenal is primed for the challenge, but honing it will demand alliances with climate science, medicine, psychology, political science and beyond.

Some are trying. For example, the Kavli Foundation in Los Angeles, US, recognising a need for answers, last year put out a call for scientists to investigate how neural systems are responding to ecological upheaval. With a trial $5 million, the foundation aims to illuminate how habitat loss, light pollution and other environmental insults may be influencing the molecular, cellular and circuit-level machinery of brains, human and otherwise. The central question is: in a biosphere where change is the only constant, are neural systems plastic enough to keep pace, or will they be left struggling to adapt?

The first wave of researchers to take up Kavli’s challenge are studying a diverse array of creatures, each uniquely positioned to reveal insights about the brain’s resilience in the face of planetary disruption. Wolfgang Stein at Illinois State University in the US and Steffen Harzsch at University of Greifswald in Germany, for example, focus on crustaceans, seeking to understand how their neural thermal regulators cope with rising temperatures in shallow and deep waters. Another group has targeted the brains of cephalopods, whose RNA-editing prowess may be key to their ability to tolerate plummeting oxygen levels in their increasingly suffocating aquatic habitats. A third Kavli cohort, led by Florence Kermen at University of Copenhagen in Denmark, is subjecting zebrafish to extreme temperatures, scouring their neurons and glial cells for the molecular signatures that allow them to thrive – even as their watery world heats up.

These initial investments have sparked federal curiosity. In December 2023, the US National Science Foundation joined forces with Kavli, inviting researchers to submit research proposals that seek to probe the ‘modulatory, homeostatic, adaptive, and/or evolutionary mechanisms that impact neurophysiology in response to anthropogenic environmental influence’. We may not be in arms-race territory yet, but at least there’s a suggestion that we’re beginning to walk in the right direction.

T he brain, that spongy command centre perched atop our spinal cord, has always been a black box. As the climate crisis tightens its grip, and the ecological ground beneath our feet grows ever more unsteady, the imperative to pry it open and peer inside grows more urgent by the day. Already, we’ve begun to glimpse the outlines of a new neural cartography, sketched in broad strokes by the likes of Sisodiya and his colleagues. We know now that the brain is less a static lump of self-regulating tissue than it is a dynamic, living landscape, its hills and valleys shaped by the contours of our environment. Just as the Greenland ice sheet groans and buckles under the heat of a changing climate, so too do our synapses wither and our neurons wink out as the mercury rises. Just as rising seas swallow coastlines, and forests succumb to drought and flame, the anatomical borders of our brains are redrawn by each new onslaught of environmental insult.

But the dialogue between brain and biosphere is not a one-way street. The choices we make, the behaviours we pursue, the ways in which we navigate a world in crisis – all of these decisions are reflected back onto the environment, for good or for ill. So, I offer: in seeking to understand how a changing climate moulds the contours of our minds, we must also reckon with how the architecture of our thoughts might be renovated in service of sustainability.

Bit by bit, synapse by synapse, we can chart a course through the gathering plague-cloud

The cartographers of the Anthropocene mind have their work cut out for them. But in the hands of neuroscience – with its shimmering brain scans and humming electrodes, its gene-editing precision and algorithmic might – there is something approaching a starting point. By tracing the pathways of environmental impact to their neural roots, and by following the cascading consequences of our mental processes back out into the world, we might yet begin to parse the tangled web that binds the fates of mind and planet.

This much is clear: as the gears of the climate crisis grind on, our brains will be swept along for the ride. The question is whether we’ll be mere passengers, or whether we’ll seize the controls and steer towards something resembling a liveable future. The weight of nature – the immensity of the crisis we face – is daunting. But it need not be paralysing. Bit by bit, synapse by synapse, we can chart a course through the gathering plague-clouds. It was Ruskin, at a slightly more legible moment in his life, who offered: ‘To banish imperfection is to destroy expression, to check exertion, to paralyse vitality.’ Even if we somehow could, we ought not banish the alleged imperfections of environmental influence on the mind. Instead, we ought to read in them an intimate, vital relationship between self and world.

In this, climatological neuroepidemiology – young and untested though it may be – is poised to play an outsized role. In gazing into the black box of the climate-altered mind, in illuminating the neural circuitry of our planetary predicament, the field offers something precious: a flicker of agency in a world that often feels as if it’s spinning out of control. It whispers that the levers of change are within reach, lodged in the squishy confines of our crania, waiting to be grasped. And it suggests that, even as the weight of nature presses down upon us, we might yet find a way to press back.

Black-and-white photo of a man in a suit and hat grabbing another man by his collar in front of a bar with bottles.

Political philosophy

C L R James and America

The brilliant Trinidadian thinker is remembered as an admirer of the US but he also warned of its dark political future

Harvey Neptune

A suburban street with mountains in the background, featuring a girl on a bike, parked cars, and old furniture on the sidewalk in front of a house.

Progress and modernity

The great wealth wave

The tide has turned – evidence shows ordinary citizens in the Western world are now richer and more equal than ever before

Daniel Waldenström

A brick house with a tiled roof, surrounded by a well-maintained garden with bushes and colourful flowers.

Falling for suburbia

Modernists and historians alike loathed the millions of new houses built in interwar Britain. But their owners loved them

Michael Gilson

Close-up of a person’s hand using a smartphone in a dimly lit room with blurred lights in the background. The phone screen shows the text ‘How can I help you today?’ and a text input field.

Computing and artificial intelligence

Mere imitation

Generative AI has lately set off public euphoria: the machines have learned to think! But just how intelligent is AI?

A black-and-white photo of a person riding a horse in, with a close-up of another horse in the foreground under bright sunlight.

Anthropology

Your body is an archive

If human knowledge can disappear so easily, why have so many cultural practices survived without written records?

Helena Miton

Person in a wheelchair with a laptop, wearing a monitoring cap, and a doctor in a lab coat standing nearby in a clinical setting.

Illness and disease

Empowering patient research

For far too long, medicine has ignored the valuable insights that patients have into their own diseases. It is time to listen

Charlotte Blease & Joanne Hunt

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The ‘Conclusion’ confirms that global warming is the major challenge for our global society. There is very little doubt that global warming will change our climate in the next century. So what are the solutions to global warming? First, there must be an international political solution. Second, funding for developing cheap and clean energy production must be increased, as all economic development is based on increasing energy usage. We must not pin all our hopes on global politics and clean energy technology, so we must prepare for the worst and adapt. If implemented now, a lot of the costs and damage that could be caused by changing climate can be mitigated.

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This year is setting up to be a momentous year in the movement for climate action. Scroll through your newsfeed, scan the day's headlines, and chances are you'll see something about climate change. 

This is good news. Largely because, as the latest IPCC report published in March made extremely clear, we are out of time for talking. We have to see urgent and widespread action on climate change right now — and that means global, systemic transformation. 

But it can get overwhelming. Both in terms of eco-anxiety — an international study in 2021 revealed that 60% of young people were very worried about climate change — but also in terms of the sheer amount of information to know. 

International climate policy isn’t exactly taught in school ( although many, such as activist Scarlett Westbrook, argue it should be ) and a barrage of media stories might have left you wondering what the difference is between your "net zero", your “NDCs”, and your “nature-based solutions.”

So to help, here’s a handy glossary of all the climate-related words and phrases you should know about. 

Climate Change

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns within global or regional climate patterns . The main cause of climate change is  burning fossil fuels  — such as coal, oil, and gas — to produce energy and power transport.

In addition to other human activities , like cutting down forests and farming , this releases heat-trapping pollution  (called greenhouse gases) into the atmosphere, warming the planet  and destabilizing the climate.

Climate change is already having a devastating impact on people all around the world, particularly through extreme weather events like heatwaves, wildfires, cyclones, droughts, and floods. Climate change is also disproportionately impacting the world's poorest people and nations the most, despite these populations having contributed the least to climate change. 

Climate Crisis

The climate crisis refers to the urgent need for immediate action  to mitigate the impacts of climate change and address the causes of climate change, and prevent serious and permanent damage to the environment.

Global Warming

Global warming refers to a long-term warming of the Earth’s surface overall temperature . Though this warming trend has been going on for a long time , its pace has significantly increased in the last hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels. 

Human activity has played a huge role in the increase of our planet’s temperature. Burning fossil fuels leads to greenhouse gases, which  cause what's known as the “greenhouse effect” in earth’s atmosphere  — which locks heat into the earth's atmosphere and causes the average global temperature to rise.

Learn more about global warming and its causes and effects in our explainer here.

Fossil Fuels 

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources  such as coal, natural gas, derived gas, crude oil, petroleum products, and non-renewable wastes . These fuels originate from dead plants and animals that existed millions of years ago , and can also be made by industrial processes  from other fossil fuels.

When fossil fuels are burned they release harmful gases into the atmosphere and cause global warming (see above!). Fossil fuels currently supply around 80% of the world’s energy.

1.5 Degrees

Debates about climate policy often refer to the need to limit global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. But where did this limit come from, and why? 

It refers to how we are tracking the world’s temperature in comparison to pre-industrial temperatures. The world is already 1.2C degrees warmer , and we’re seeing changes in weather and the climate as a result.

The idea of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees comes from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , a UN body founded in 1988 to regularly assess all the available science on the changing global climate. Scientific predictions have been made about what the likely effect of incremental temperature rises would be — you can read about the differences between a 1.5, 2, and 3 degree rise here .

The Paris Agreement signed at COP21 in 2015 committed all 196 countries that signed it to endeavoring to keep global warming to below 2 degrees, and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees.

Loss & Damage

Loss and damage is a phrase you'll likely hear a lot, and it refers, to quote the UN Environment Program , "to the negative consequences that arise from the unavoidable risks of climate change" — things like, extreme weather events, rising sea levels, species extinction, and more. There's no internationally agreed definition for loss and damage, but it typically refers to the destructive impacts of climate change. 

When capitalized, Loss and Damage is typically used when referring to international climate negotiations and the plans and policies that address loss and damage. Loss and Damage is incredibly important in addressing the injustice of climate change — with low-income and climate-vulnerable countries disproportionately experiencing the impacts of climate change and the mounting costs that result from loss and damage, despite having contributed the least to the causes of climate change. 

Climate Adaptation

It’s vital that countries drastically cut carbon emissions to address climate change — but our climate is already changing and, as such, countries also need to adapt. 

With sea levels already rising and extreme weather events increasing in frequency and intensity, it’s clear that to protect vulnerable communities from the worst impacts, a significant amount of adaptation is required.

Climate adaptation can take many forms. It can mean building flood defenses, but it can also mean strengthening food systems so that they can withstand shocks. It’s important that wealthy countries, that have done the most to cause climate change, step up and support lower-income countries with this process of adaptation. You can learn more about climate adaptation here .

Climate Finance 

Dedicated and ring-fenced climate finance is what is needed to help fund efforts to address climate change — from cutting carbon emissions and shifting to clean energy, to adapting to climate change's impacts. 

In short, billions of dollars are needed to address the increased poverty that climate change causes, to bolster systems to cope with its effects, and to support low- and middle-income countries to manage a just transition to greener economies.

It is especially important that funds are mobilized to help the poorest communities globally — those that did the least to cause the climate crisis but are bearing the brunt of the consequences.

At the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, high-income economies pledged to mobilize $100 billion annually to fund adaptation and mitigation projects by 2020. However that promised funding has yet to be delivered. You can take action and join the call on world leaders to deliver the funding . 

Find out more here about climate finance here.

Nature-Based Solutions

Nature-based solutions are an important aspect of the multi-pronged approach to fighting climate change. They are any action that works to sustainably manage, restore, and protect natural ecosystems — which in turn help build resilience to the impacts of climate change.

These are solutions like restoring mangrove forests to help provide an effective natural barrier against coastal flooding, or massive tree-planting, restoring, and protection programs  to help ensure the world’s forests can effectively absorb carbon.

Forests and land ecosystems are what is known as “carbon sinks" and help to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, so many scientists advocate for “ rewilding ” — letting natural ecosystems restore to their natural state — to help the world recover. Read more here about groups that are leading the way with nature-based solutions .

The goal of the climate action taken by governments and societies around the world is to reach “net zero.”

That’s the state where no more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions are going into the atmosphere than can be taken out, and it means cutting emissions to as close to zero as possible.

Net zero is a simple goal that requires radical action to achieve. It will mean transitioning economies relying on fossil fuels for power towards renewable sources of energy instead.

A number of states — including the UK, the US, France, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan — have set goals to reach net zero emissions by 2050. To achieve this, decisive action needs to be taken right now to curb emissions. Find out more about the net zero goal and how we get there here , and about the UN-led campaign to cut emissions called the “Race to Zero” here .

Climate Justice

Climate justice refers to the intersectionality of the climate crisis as a social and political problem, as well as an environmental one .

It acknowledges that different communities feel the effects of the climate crisis differently  — with the world's poorest and most marginalized people being the most heavily impacted by climate change — and that the responsibility for causing and addressing the crisis rests with some more than others . 

Renewable Energy 

Renewable energy refers to sources or processes that are constantly replenished . These sources of energy include solar energy , wind energy, geothermal energy , and hydroelectric power; and they are the types of energy sources the world needs to be shifting to to effectively tackle climate change.

Extreme Weather

Extreme weather refers to any weather that falls outside of normal patterns  — and it's becoming increasingly frequent and intense as a result of climate change. Already in 2023 we've witnessed numerous extreme and record-breaking weather events , from a heatwave across Asia, to Cyclone Freddy in southern and eastern Africa, to drought in the Horn of Africa, and more. 

Carbon Emissions

Carbon emissions means carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted when fossil fuels are burned in vehicles, buildings, industrial processes, and so on. CO2 is one of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) which is warming the atmosphere  and contributing to global warming. There are however six greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorocarbons, often referred to together as "carbon dioxide equivalent" (CO2e) . 

Paris Climate Agreement

The Paris Agreement is a legally binding international treaty on climate change . It was adopted by 196 countries  at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris on Dec. 12, 2015 and was implemented on Nov. 4, 2016. 

It has a main goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global temperature increase to as close as possible to 1.5C; while other parts of the agreement focus on adaptation, education, financing, and how climate action can help achieve other UN Global Goals in the mission to end extreme poverty. 

Biodiversity 

Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi . However, many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities and climate change, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk .

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) are reserve assets that can be traded between countries in exchange for liquidity, or cash . SDRs aren't money in the classic sense because they can’t be used to buy things, only to exchange, but they do have value.

In a nutshell, SDRs are basically coupons that countries can exchange with other countries for cash when they need immediate financial assistance, for example to buy essential supplies like vaccines, and support their economies.

The world’s biggest climate summit  is the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as a COP.

The COP happening later in 2023 is COP28 and it presents a historic opportunity for nations to agree to life-saving commitments to cut emissions, ensure climate finance, and curb run-away climate change. Taking place in Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12, world leaders, diplomats, NGOs, activists, and the media will be traveling to the city to take part. 

The summit is convened every year by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which is a UN agency focused on, you guessed it, the climate.

COP is short for “Conference of the Parties” and essentially means a “gathering of countries.” This year will be the 28th time the conference has happened, hence the name “COP28.”

Nationally Determined Contributions — or ‘NDCs’ 

Something that has been part of past COP summits discussion are “NDCs”, short for “Nationally Determined Contributions”. Under the Paris Agreement, countries have to submit  their plans to cut emissions — their “contribution” to the global effort to tackle climate change.

These plans detail when the country expects to reach peak emissions, and when they will reach “net zero” and what that trajectory looks like. The NDCs are seen as a work in progress, and need to be updated every five years to reflect greater ambition, providing more targeted information about how each country plans to achieve net zero.

Currently the NDCs submitted do not go far enough to curb warming to 1.5 degrees. According to a 2022 report  by the United Nations, the world is currently on track for a temperature rise between 2.4C and 2.6C by 2100. Head here for a more detailed look at NDCs.

Climate Refugees & Climate Visas

A climate refugee is a person who has been  forced to leave their home because the effects of climate change has made it impossible for them to stay. Climate visas, meanwhile, refers to visas  given to people fleeing natural disasters caused by climate change; providing a safe and legal route for climate refugees to enter a country. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports that, between 2008 and 2016, an average of 21.5 million people were displaced annually by extreme weather events. It's estimated that, by 2050, the climate crisis could force more than a billion people from their homes. 

A Few More Acronyms…

There are few acronyms that refer to groups of countries or organizations that you might hear referred to in conversations about the climate. 

SIDS —  Small Island Developing States, referring to a group of 58 low-lying island nations that are vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by climate change. They also face threats from heavy rains, increased cyclones, and ocean acidification. Leaders from SIDS nations have been clear about the need for wealthy countries to keep their promises on tackling climate change. G20 — The G20 is a forum of the 20 biggest economies in the world, made up of 19 nations and the European Union. Efforts to cut emissions must be led by these economies, which together account for between 75-80% of global trade and are home to around two-thirds of the global population. The 2023 G20 summit is to be held in New Delhi on Sept. 9 and 10.  AGN — The African Group of Negotiators was established at the very first COP meeting in Berlin in 1995. It’s made up of representatives from an alliance of African states to speak together at climate change negotiations. 

Now you know all about the key words and phrases relating to climate change, you can join us and Global Citizen around the world in taking action to address climate change. You can take action to support our Power Our Planet campaign, and urge world leaders, business leaders, the world's development banks, philanthropists, and more, to take the urgent and widespread action needed to fight climate change and its impacts. Get started by signing our petition , then find out more here about Power Our Planet and how you can take further action to help . 

Global Citizen Explains

Defend the Planet

Climate Change: The Key Words and Phrases Everyone Should Know & Understand

May 5, 2023

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global warming and climate change essay 300 words

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What is the best site for researching quality climate change paper samples?

Samples is a website filled with sample essays and papers on the subject of climate change, as well as all related topics on this and many others.

How to use climate change essay examples to create my paper?

The examples are intended to help find primary sources for studying climate-related materials, help to get acquainted with the expertise and structure of writing from our writers and assist in getting acquainted with the features of writing different types of essays.

Is it allowed to submit your climate change essay samples as mine?

It is possible but be prepared that the professor or commission may not accept them since they are all in the public domain and are intended primarily for finding the necessary information, examples of text structuring, etc.

What college paper and essay examples can students find on our site?

The catalogue contains various topics and different types of works (essays, papers, etc.). Consequently, the number of examples in each category can exceed several dozen.

If you have a chance to look inside our climate change essay examples, it may turn out to be your winning ticket to the fascinating world of writing. Here, you may find research papers compiled by professionals. In addition, the range of topics related to climate and human impact on the environment can be used to create persuasive essays of the highest quality.

Climate Change Essay Examples: Problems & Solutions

When writing an essay about climate change, we consider it a distant problem as far as it is not real or visible to the naked eye. However, the suffering of our planet due to human intervention and a long-lasting bad influence on nature resulted in atmosphere changes, the greenhouse effect, and global warming.

The temperature will rise by 1.5 ℃ during the next 20 years. The problem might not seem urgent, but the results may be harmful, hazardous, and irreversible. Students may find it dull to write about the environment. Moreover, they need deep knowledge of geography and have developed analytical skills to predict consequences. Teachers try to guide students in the precise analysis of their effect on the Earth in essays about climate change.

Sample Essay on Climate Change: Ideal to Follow

In writing an argumentative essay, it may be challenging to figure out the main principles of writing and follow a logical outline. You may use any sample essay on climate change from our database to read and follow in such a situation.

Our Essays Inspire and Provoke Thinking

Reading piles of books can overload your mind and mess up your ideas. Sometimes, you need a short but logical and informative paper to grasp concepts for perfect argumentative essay writing. However, reading our samples of climate change essays, you will be excited with certain and understandable content that provides inspiration and food for thinking.

Right Structure and Topic: Crucial Moments

When you write a climate change opinion essay, you may pay attention more to your ideas, scientific facts, and results of further development of climate change. But your teacher considers correspondence of topic to the content and proper structure. Therefore, in our templates of essays on climate change, our writers adhere to all academic writing requirements.

Moreover, on the list of topics, you may find the most interesting and develop your ideas using additional resources. Finally, remember catchy phrases that draw attention from the first sight, as our samples do.

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The team of professionals provides writing services to support beginners or guide amateurs. Each global climate change essay is unique and reveals all the issues of every subject and topic. There must be enough experience to write a highly-graded essay, and our authors, with good practice, may teach any willing student the subtleties of perfect writing.

Essays on Climate Change to Any Taste

Not all the students have time to write papers. Many of them have no desire to spend hours in front of the laptop screen. Few of them have enough writing experience. If you are one of those students who have not found a required sample to follow and are ready to pay for an excellent project, you are in the right place. We can cope with climate change college essays of any difficulty level. Be sure of on-time delivery and quality.

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global warming and climate change essay 300 words

Climate change: An A-Z glossary of the words you need to know in the fight against global warming

global warming and climate change essay 300 words

Political reporter @alixculbertson

Friday 29 October 2021 09:45, UK

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Climate change affects everybody on this planet, so it is important to know all the terminology surrounding it.

Here are some of the most important words and phrases:

Changes in processes, practices and structures to help cope with the effects of climate change - such as building flood defences or switching to drought-resistant crops.

Flood defences, like this temporary one on the River Severn, are a type of climate change adaptation

Biodiversity

A wide range of living organisms, such as animals and plants, in an environment. Biodiversity is essential for ecosystems to survive. For example, without plants, there would be no oxygen - and without bees to pollinate, there would be no fruit or nuts.

Biomass/biofuel

Biomass is any organic matter that comes from plants and animals, such as cow dung, corn crops or wood chips that can be used for renewable energy.

Biofuel is the fuel derived from biomass. The UK considers biofuel renewable, but some scientists say it is not as it emits CO2.

Carbon budget

The amount of CO2 that a country, company or organisation has agreed is the most it will produce in a particular period of time to meet emission reduction commitments.

Carbon capture/sequestration and storage

The collection and transport of concentrated CO2 gas from large emission sources, such as power plants.

Those gases are then injected into deep underground reservoirs. Geological sequestration is another name for carbon capture.

This carbon capture unit at the Mountaineer coal power plant in West Virginia, US, stores CO2 from the plant

Carbon intensity

The amount of carbon, by weight, emitted per unit of energy consumed.

Carbon markets

One country pays for carbon emissions to be reduced in another country so the first country can count those reductions towards its own national targets.

This can also be at regional or company level, with those who are going to exceed a greenhouse gas cap are able to trade allowance from a company that will not reach the cap.

Project trading can also happen with carbon offsetting (see below).

Carbon offsetting/credits

The practice of reducing CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions made in one area to compensate for emissions elsewhere.

This could be planting trees for taking a plane and often involves a company funding a project elsewhere - restoring forests or developing renewable energy, for example.

The amount those producing carbon must pay for each tonne of greenhouse gas emissions.

CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent)

A standard unit for measuring the impact of each different greenhouse gas in terms of the amount of CO2 that would create the same amount of warming.

Climate change

The long-term changes in the Earth's climate, or a region on Earth, including variations in sea levels, amounts of snow and sea ice.

A change in levels of sea ice is an indication of climate change

Climate finance

Local, national or transnational financing that seeks to support mitigation and adaptation actions to address climate change.

The Paris Agreement (scroll down) calls for financial assistance from those with more financial resources than those that are poorer and more vulnerable.

Climate justice

Looking at the climate crisis through a human rights lens instead of a purely scientific one.

It puts people and communities most vulnerable to the impact of climate change at its heart.

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference due to take place in Glasgow from 1 to 12 November 2021. COP stands for Conference of the Parties.

It will bring world leaders together to agree on what actions need to be taken to achieve the Paris Agreement goals and those of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The different energy sources used in a geographical region, and in what proportions - often split into renewable (such as wind, solar and tidal) and non-renewable (such as gas and coal).

Wind farms such as Burbo Bank in Liverpool Bay, UK, produce renewable energy

Energy transition

The global energy sector's shift from fossil-based energy production and consumption to renewable energy.

Fast fashion

Cheap, often poor quality clothes produced rapidly by mass-market retailers in response to the latest trends. They are bought regularly and are often only worn a few times before being thrown out.

Global warming

A gradual increase in the Earth's overall temperature caused by increased levels of greenhouse gases such as CO2, CFCs and other pollutants that absorb infrared radiation.

Greenwashing

Disinformation produced by an organisation to present an environmentally responsible public image.

The UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It was created to provide politicians with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks and to put forward adaptation and mitigation options.

Actions to limit global warming by reducing human emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and reducing their concentrations.

Electric cars are a form of climate change mitigation as they reduce human-induced CO2 emissions

Nationally determined contributions of each of the Paris Agreement's signatories.

They are national climate plans highlighting climate actions, including targets, policies and measures aimed at reducing climate change.

Net zero/absolute zero/carbon neutrality

All terms for when the amount of CO2 emissions released on an annual basis is zero or negative.

Sky News poll

Paris Agreement

A legally binding international treaty on climate change adopted by 196 parties at COP21 in Paris in 2015.

Its goal is to limit global warming to well below 2C, preferably to 1.5C, below pre-industrial levels.

Every five years, countries must submit their plans for climate action (NDCs) and in 2020 they had to submit a long-term plan.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty addressing climate change.

It was signed by 154 states at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with the aim of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations to prevent dangerous human-induced interference with the climate system.

National Academies Press: OpenBook

Climate Change: Evidence and Causes: Update 2020 (2020)

Chapter: conclusion, c onclusion.

This document explains that there are well-understood physical mechanisms by which changes in the amounts of greenhouse gases cause climate changes. It discusses the evidence that the concentrations of these gases in the atmosphere have increased and are still increasing rapidly, that climate change is occurring, and that most of the recent change is almost certainly due to emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activities. Further climate change is inevitable; if emissions of greenhouse gases continue unabated, future changes will substantially exceed those that have occurred so far. There remains a range of estimates of the magnitude and regional expression of future change, but increases in the extremes of climate that can adversely affect natural ecosystems and human activities and infrastructure are expected.

Citizens and governments can choose among several options (or a mixture of those options) in response to this information: they can change their pattern of energy production and usage in order to limit emissions of greenhouse gases and hence the magnitude of climate changes; they can wait for changes to occur and accept the losses, damage, and suffering that arise; they can adapt to actual and expected changes as much as possible; or they can seek as yet unproven “geoengineering” solutions to counteract some of the climate changes that would otherwise occur. Each of these options has risks, attractions and costs, and what is actually done may be a mixture of these different options. Different nations and communities will vary in their vulnerability and their capacity to adapt. There is an important debate to be had about choices among these options, to decide what is best for each group or nation, and most importantly for the global population as a whole. The options have to be discussed at a global scale because in many cases those communities that are most vulnerable control few of the emissions, either past or future. Our description of the science of climate change, with both its facts and its uncertainties, is offered as a basis to inform that policy debate.

A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The following individuals served as the primary writing team for the 2014 and 2020 editions of this document:

  • Eric Wolff FRS, (UK lead), University of Cambridge
  • Inez Fung (NAS, US lead), University of California, Berkeley
  • Brian Hoskins FRS, Grantham Institute for Climate Change
  • John F.B. Mitchell FRS, UK Met Office
  • Tim Palmer FRS, University of Oxford
  • Benjamin Santer (NAS), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • John Shepherd FRS, University of Southampton
  • Keith Shine FRS, University of Reading.
  • Susan Solomon (NAS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Kevin Trenberth, National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • John Walsh, University of Alaska, Fairbanks
  • Don Wuebbles, University of Illinois

Staff support for the 2020 revision was provided by Richard Walker, Amanda Purcell, Nancy Huddleston, and Michael Hudson. We offer special thanks to Rebecca Lindsey and NOAA Climate.gov for providing data and figure updates.

The following individuals served as reviewers of the 2014 document in accordance with procedures approved by the Royal Society and the National Academy of Sciences:

  • Richard Alley (NAS), Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University
  • Alec Broers FRS, Former President of the Royal Academy of Engineering
  • Harry Elderfield FRS, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge
  • Joanna Haigh FRS, Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London
  • Isaac Held (NAS), NOAA Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory
  • John Kutzbach (NAS), Center for Climatic Research, University of Wisconsin
  • Jerry Meehl, Senior Scientist, National Center for Atmospheric Research
  • John Pendry FRS, Imperial College London
  • John Pyle FRS, Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge
  • Gavin Schmidt, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
  • Emily Shuckburgh, British Antarctic Survey
  • Gabrielle Walker, Journalist
  • Andrew Watson FRS, University of East Anglia

The Support for the 2014 Edition was provided by NAS Endowment Funds. We offer sincere thanks to the Ralph J. and Carol M. Cicerone Endowment for NAS Missions for supporting the production of this 2020 Edition.

F OR FURTHER READING

For more detailed discussion of the topics addressed in this document (including references to the underlying original research), see:

  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2019: Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate [ https://www.ipcc.ch/srocc ]
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), 2019: Negative Emissions Technologies and Reliable Sequestration: A Research Agenda [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25259 ]
  • Royal Society, 2018: Greenhouse gas removal [ https://raeng.org.uk/greenhousegasremoval ]
  • U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), 2018: Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States [ https://nca2018.globalchange.gov ]
  • IPCC, 2018: Global Warming of 1.5°C [ https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15 ]
  • USGCRP, 2017: Fourth National Climate Assessment Volume I: Climate Science Special Reports [ https://science2017.globalchange.gov ]
  • NASEM, 2016: Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/21852 ]
  • IPCC, 2013: Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) Working Group 1. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis [ https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg1 ]
  • NRC, 2013: Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change: Anticipating Surprises [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/18373 ]
  • NRC, 2011: Climate Stabilization Targets: Emissions, Concentrations, and Impacts Over Decades to Millennia [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12877 ]
  • Royal Society 2010: Climate Change: A Summary of the Science [ https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/publications/2010/climate-change-summary-science ]
  • NRC, 2010: America’s Climate Choices: Advancing the Science of Climate Change [ https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12782 ]

Much of the original data underlying the scientific findings discussed here are available at:

  • https://data.ucar.edu/
  • https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu
  • https://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu
  • https://ess-dive.lbl.gov/
  • https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
  • https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/
  • http://scrippsco2.ucsd.edu
  • http://hahana.soest.hawaii.edu/hot/
was established to advise the United States on scientific and technical issues when President Lincoln signed a Congressional charter in 1863. The National Research Council, the operating arm of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, has issued numerous reports on the causes of and potential responses to climate change. Climate change resources from the National Research Council are available at .
is a self-governing Fellowship of many of the world’s most distinguished scientists. Its members are drawn from all areas of science, engineering, and medicine. It is the national academy of science in the UK. The Society’s fundamental purpose, reflected in its founding Charters of the 1660s, is to recognise, promote, and support excellence in science, and to encourage the development and use of science for the benefit of humanity. More information on the Society’s climate change work is available at

Image

Climate change is one of the defining issues of our time. It is now more certain than ever, based on many lines of evidence, that humans are changing Earth's climate. The Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, with their similar missions to promote the use of science to benefit society and to inform critical policy debates, produced the original Climate Change: Evidence and Causes in 2014. It was written and reviewed by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists. This new edition, prepared by the same author team, has been updated with the most recent climate data and scientific analyses, all of which reinforce our understanding of human-caused climate change.

Scientific information is a vital component for society to make informed decisions about how to reduce the magnitude of climate change and how to adapt to its impacts. This booklet serves as a key reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and others seeking authoritative answers about the current state of climate-change science.

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