WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?

Weather changes from day to day: sometimes it rains, sometimes it's hot. Climate is the pattern of weather conditions over a long period of time for a large region. It can be influenced by the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth is surrounded by an atmosphere made up of gases. When sunlight enters our atmosphere, some of the sun's heat is trapped by the gas and some is radiated back into space. By trapping this heat, our atmosphere keeps the Earth warm enough to sustain life. Without it, our planet would be as cold as Mars. The Earth's climate has always experienced natural cycles of change depending on the amount of solar energy absorbed by the atmosphere. In fact, over the past 650,000 years, the Earth has experienced seven ice ages and periods of warming.