© WWF / Nigel Dickinson

Climate Change

El Nino. Forest Fires. Tropical rainforest. The Amazon, Brazil, Roraima, south of Boa Vista.
Climate change refers to the long-term fluctuations in temperature, precipitation, wind and other aspects related to climate and weather. The United Nations Convention on Climate Change describes it as the change of climate that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere, and this is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods.
WWF's Climate Change Programme
A good place to start learning more about global climate change is to check out the WWF's Climate Change Programme.

Scientific data on climate change
Climate change is not something that started happening yesterday. Even natural phenomena contribute to changes in global weather. Neither is the study of climate change new or how human activities affect it.

The exploration of climate change encompasses many fields - physics, chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology, oceanography, and even sociology. Exploratorium.edu's Climate section is a comprehensive repository of scientific data relating to the atmosphere, the oceans, the areas covered by ice and snow, and the living organisms in all these domains.

It also talks of how scientists study natural phenomena, gather evidence, test theories and come to conclusions on this subject.

Solutions
For a range of interactive tools, resources and success stories about reduction of greenhouse emissions, visit this Canadian web site.

More resources
The BBC's section on climate change has interesting articles on the impact of climate change around the world and on our health. It also has tools for you to know more about the subject.

Visit ClimateArk.org is an educational climate change portal that promotes public policy that addresses global climate change through reductions in carbon dioxide and other emissions, renewable energy, energy conservation and ending deforestation.

The list of resources available on climate change is long and comprehensive, but a very useful list of links for students and teachers can be found here.