If your teacher ever asks you what ‘Climate Change’ means use this quick trick to explain it to her.

Firstly, ask her to separate the two words. Then tell her to to look only at the word Climate and make a list of what she thinks the word ‘Climate’ means. Her list may look something like this : rainfall, temperature and how hot or cold we feel, wind patterns, ocean currents, seasons.

Now ask her to add the word ‘change or changing ’ to all the words in her list. So her list would read somewhat like this…

…. rainfall changing,
temperature changing,
seasons changing,
wind and ocean currents changing…….

Of course, there would be more in her list but tell her that her list explains what ‘Climate Change’ means. If you want to score some extra points do let her know that Climate Change is happening really fast and that the Earth looks like it’s in a lot of trouble and so are we. One word of caution though if she is a smart teacher, she’s not going to stop there. She is going to ask why the Climate is Changing. Well there’s a short answer to that one. Tell her it’s changing because of ‘Global Warming’.
Explain that Global warming is caused by gases that cover the earth like a blanket and make it feel warm. One might wonder how these gases suddenly come into the atmosphere and covered the earth? Scientists say that these gases are in the smoke that comes mainly from the coal that we burn to make our electricity. Just look around your home and school. How many things can you find that run on electricity? Can you think of all the homes in your city that need electricity and all the coal we need to burn to make that electricity. All those gases have come out from the chimneys of power plants where this electricity is made. The gases leave the chimneys and go up into the atmosphere and spread out to cover the earth in a blanket.

But making electricity from coal is not the only cause. There are several other things we humans do that add to that blanket of gases. Our cars and aeroplanes also emit gases and so does our waste that lies on our dumpsites, so do the cows that give us milk. The list is endless.

“Who has caused and is causing ‘Climate Change’ ?” is a question you need to ask everyone.

The Answer:

Everyone is causing Climate Change. We all are responsible for causing it.

After all, aren’t we all using the electricity that is made in power plants that burn coal.

Is there some way to stop using electricity?

No, thats hardly possible. But we can use electricity made from other sources like the sun ( solar energy ) and the wind ( wind energy ) and even from waves ( wave energy ) and water ( hydro power ). These are all called renewable energy sources. Using these would not lead to any gases being emitted into the air.

So thats a great solution. Apart from these there are many other simple ways to stop Climate Change. Check out the colourful boxes to the right to find out more solutions to Climate Change.

Another way to explain to others about climate change would be to run this Animated short film called – The Climate Change Mystery created by CERE especially for children.