1. Causes
1.1. Natural
1.1.1. Forest Fires
1.1.1.1. Combustion - gives off harmful gases
1.1.1.2. Sometimes, whole forests can be burnt down.
1.1.2. Methane Emissions
1.1.2.1. Increase with the amount of concentrated livestock
1.1.2.2. Usually from animals such as cows
1.1.3. Volcanoes
1.1.3.1. Volcanoes emit tonnes of harmful, poisonous gases into the atmosphere often (not just when they erupt)
1.2. Artificial
1.2.1. Power plants
1.2.1.1. Gives off harmful gases as a product of combustion
1.2.1.2. Usually burn fossil fuels or natural gas/oil etc. (non renewable)
1.2.2. Transportation
1.2.2.1. Most cars/trucks run on either petrol, diesel or electricity
1.2.2.2. Responsible for 33% of emmision in the US
1.2.3. Deforestation
1.2.3.1. Trees/plants produce oxygen as a waste product of photosynthesis
1.2.3.2. Deforestation reduces the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere
1.2.4. Chemical Fertilisers
1.2.4.1. The run-off of excess fertilizers creates ‘dead-zones’ in our oceans
1.2.4.2. Rain washses the fertiliser from the soil into the lakes which affects the life underwater
2. Solutions
2.1. Recycling
2.1.1. Recycling paper and card etc. Can help reduce the amount of trees being chopped down
2.1.2. Whole forests - the size of football pitch's - are chopped down to make furniture, paper and other items
2.1.3. Recycling your waste is a good way to save energy because factories can use the leftover bottles etc. To make new ones. By recycling half of your household waste, you can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually
2.2. Reducing
2.2.1. Reduce the amount of electricity being used in your house that isn't needed ( e.g turn off lights as you leave a room
2.2.2. If you have or are buying a car, make sure to have a catalytic converter on the exhaust pipe to filter through all of the harmful gases
2.2.3. Get energy from alternative sources (not the mains electricity) such as solar power - from solar panels (can be put on the roof)
2.3. Energy efficient
2.3.1. If every U.S. family replaced one regular light bulb with a CFL, it would eliminate 90 billion pounds of greenhouse gases, the same as taking 7.5 million cars off the road
2.3.2. Install energy-efficient hot water system or use energy-efficient light bulbs (to reduce the amount of wasted energy)
3. Effects
3.1. Sea levels rising
3.1.1. The temperatures rising means the icy glaciers etc. are melting - more water in the ocean.
3.1.2. This will displace millions of people - flooding
3.1.3. Maldives - badly affected by sea levels
3.2. Temperatures Rising
3.2.1. The layer of greenhouse gases are trapping in heat which makes it even hotter.
3.2.2. This affects the the artic areas - where the ice is melting rapidly
3.2.3. The more greenhouse gases (e.g caron dioxide), the higher and faster temperatures rising
3.3. Greenhouse gases
3.3.1. These gases are mainly from things such as combustion and car emissions
3.3.2. Sulphur dioxide, carbon dioxide and methane etc.
3.4. Storms (natural disasters)
3.4.1. Storms have been getting more and more violent
3.4.2. Scientists can link this to sea levels rising - they think this may be the cause
3.5. Massive Crop Failures
3.5.1. 90% chance that 3 billion people worldwide will have to choose between moving their families to milder climates and going hungry due to climate change within 100 years.
3.5.2. Acid rain can destroy crops - burns/corrdes the leaves and destroys the roots