Connecticut

NATURE
Common Core Standards CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.3.1-3.10/4.1-4.10/5.1-5.10

What’s All This Talk

About Climate Change?
Written by Michelle Eckman, Connecticut Audubon Society

Perhaps you have heard the term ”climate change” in school or on TV. You have probably heard the term
“global warming,” too. You may have asked yourself “What is climate change?” or “Are climate change and
global warming the same?” It is important to know what they are and how they affect you.

First, it is a good idea to define what climate is. The American Heritage dictionary defines climate as the “general
weather conditions of a region throughout the year, averaged over a series of years.” Scientifically, this period of time
lasts hundreds to even thousands of years.

The climate of any particular area is affected by where it is on the planet, how close it is to large bodies of water, and the
amount of energy it receives from the sun. Connecticut is located in a temperate climate. We receive a balanced amount of
precipitation (rain, sleet, snow) throughout the year. Our air temperature changes widely throughout the year, through the
seasons, and even during a single day. Scientists are noticing that these changes are becoming even more extreme, with wide
changes happening more often.

Keep in mind that climates have been naturally changing on our planet since earth formed billions of years ago. In general, these
changes have been slow and steady. Scientists have been able to trace earth’s climate history in the past 800,000 years using ice
cores from glaciers in the Arctic. What scientists have learned is our climate is changing more rapidly now than at any point in all
of those years. We are seeing changes in our climate that used to take hundreds of years that now happens in just decades. So,
what is causing our climates to change so quickly? Scientists all over the world have been wondering the same thing. What they
have found is that there are too many gases in our atmosphere that are acting like a heat-trapping blanket. The main culprit is
carbon dioxide (CO2), which is created by burning fossil fuels.

How is so much CO2 getting into and staying in the air? We burn too much carbon that we get from inside the earth in the form of
fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. We burn coal, oil and gas to make electricity so we can do things like watch TV, heat our homes
in winter, and to make our cars, trucks, buses, planes, and factories run. Plants and trees can convert CO2 into useful oxygen we
need, but there are not enough plants and trees to keep up with the amount of CO2 we produce.

Normally, much of the sun’s heat is reflected off of earth’s atmosphere back into the solar system. However, gases like CO2 can
prevent heat from being reflected into the solar system because they absorb the heat energy. The more CO2 in our atmosphere,
the more heat is absorbed. As a result, our planet is getting warmer.

So why do some people use the term global warming and some use climate change? While it is true that on average, temperatures
are increasing all over the world (global warming), it is difficult for us to relate to this in the dead of winter. Climate change is a term
that better reflects what we observe over time. Some of the evidence of climate change that we can easily see here in CT is the
increase in extreme weather. You can probably remember Hurricane Sandy and Blizzard Nemo – maybe even Hurricane Irene. In
the past few years, we have had some droughts. While these weather events normally happen every few decades, they are now
happening much more frequently. How do you think the plants and animals are handling these changes? Our beautiful maple trees
once gave us lots of sap with which we made delicious maple syrup. Maple trees depend on really cold temperatures
alternating with warmer temperatures to make their sap flow. For many decades, our temperatures have
not been getting cold enough in Connecticut and we now have to get most of our maple syrup from much
further north - mostly from Canada. What will happen to our delicious maple syrup as our climate
continues to warm?
(http://www.ct.gov/deep/lib/deep/climatechange/impactsofclimatechange.pdf)

But YOU can make a difference! Think about all of the ways you use electricity every day. Every time
you use electricity, more carbon dioxide goes into the air. What can you do today and every day to
help put less carbon dioxide into the air? Every little bit adds up to make a difference for you, your

Activity
family and our climate’s plants and animals.

Student
Did You Know? Calculate Your Impact:
• There are about 16 different types of climates on earth. A Russian
scientist named Köppen classified the world’s climates into categories,
including:
• Doesn’t it feel wonderful to go to bed at night knowing you did some-
• Tropical moist rainforests • Wet-dry tropical savanna
thing positive for you, your family and the earth? There is a way you can
• Dry tropical desert • Dry mid-latitude steppe
calculate just how much good you are doing each day! Go to the U.S.
• Mediterranean chaparral • Dry mid-latitude grasslands
Environmental Protection Agency’s Student’s Guide to Climate Change
• Moist continental/deciduous forest • Boreal forest/taiga
at http://www.epa.gov/climate/climatechange/kids/calc/index.html. There
• Tundra • Highland/alpine
is an easy way to calculate your impact and even easier ways to reduce
how much CO2 you use.
• If you watch one hour less of TV per day, you will lower the amount of
CO2 in the atmosphere and help reduce your impact on climate change! • National Geographic also has calculators to
calculate your carbon impact http://environment.
• Planting trees in your yard, your schoolyard and in your community nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/
helps lower the impact of CO2 and helps the environment. great-energy-challenge/personal-energy-meter/
• Check out the italicized vocabulary words in this article – how many do
you know? What terms need defining?