Download What is climate change?

Interfaith Scotland
Scottish Interfaith Week 2015
Care for the Environment
Climate Change
What is climate change?
• Caused by build up of greenhouse gases (CO2, Ozone, etc)
• These trap heat in the earths atmosphere – known as the
greenhouse effect
• Over time, there has been a considerable build up of
greenhouse gases which scientists state is caused by human
behavior
• This is because the earth has stores of CO 2 which humans have
been exploiting and releasing back into the atmosphere
• The CO2 has been stored in vegetation and fossil fuels
• Humans have found that burning these can produce heat and
energy
• Since the industrial revolution, the levels of CO 2 released from
these stores has increased significantly
• The more of these quantities there are in the atmosphere, the
more heat gets trapped
What does all this mean?
Climate change has many aspects
• Most visible is the increase in frequency in extreme weather events
such as floods, tornadoes, typhoons and hurricanes
• We can’t pin one of these events down to climate change, but what
we can do is look at the frequency and severity in which they occur
• Glaciers are melting
• Sea levels are rising
What does climate change affect?
• It affects us all differently
• SCCS ran a campaign called For the Love of… which asked people
the issue that they cared about that was affected by climate change
• Here are some of their responses:
For the love of everything that makes life worth living and to ensure a future for my
children and grandchildren.
Philip, Dunbar
Scotland's coasts are vitally important to the population of north Atlantic seabirds
and they are already under severe pressures due to climate change.
Jean, Glasgow
Here’s what I love that is affected by climate change: I love my children!
Lucy, Edinburgh
As a probationer minister in the Church of Scotland, I view looking after the world as
important as feeding the hungry through foodbanks, as climate change will affect the
world's ability, particularly the world's poorest, to feed itself.
Susan, Fife
The Isle of Tiree and other coastal communities all round the world
Liz, Glasgow
Another World is Possible
• We already have many of the solutions
• Moving to renewable sources of energy can lead to a safer, cleaner
world
• It’s not going to be easy, but it can have a lot of benefits
• For example, air pollution in Scotland kills thousands of people
prematurely
Global Action
• At the end of the year, world leaders meet in Paris to agree a global
agreement on how to act
• This has to be ambitious and binding
• The summit has to learn from previous failures – spanning 20 years!
National Action
• We have to decarbonise our energy system
• We need to leave some of our fossil fuel reserves in the ground
• We need to share our knowledge with other nations
Local Action
• Every school, hospital, place of worship has a responsibility to take
action to make their buildings more ‘eco-friendly’
• A good resource for this is the Interfaith Scotland booklet,
‘Our Sacred Earth’ which is available in the resources section on
our website for good tips and hints
Personal Action
• Transport
- Active travel such as walking /cycling, using public transport and flying less
• Home - Turn down heating
• Food - Eating locally sourced food
• Demand action from our political leaders at the Paris Summit
- Join ‘The People’s Climate March’ on the 28th of November in Edinburgh
- It may be for different reasons that we are all there, but we have one
common goal – care for our shared environment