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Climate Change
Quick revise
The world's climate varies naturally as a result of:
* the way the ocean and the atmosphere interact with each other
* changes in the Earth's orbit
* changes in energy received from the sun
However, there is now very strong evidence and almost universal agreement that significant recent global warming can’t be explained just by natural causes. The changes seen over recent years, and those predicted for the next century, are considered to be mainly the result of human behaviour.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body set up by the UN to look at climate change. It says that human activity is the main cause of the changes seen in climate during recent decades.
In the last 100 years, the Earth has warmed by 0.75 degrees Celsius. Global sea levels have gone up, glaciers and sea ice have melted, and extreme weather events, like floods and droughts, are likely to happen more often.
