Causes of climate change

Causes of climate change

Before I tell you what causes climate change you need to know about something called greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses are gasses that absorb heat coming from the sun and trap it inside the atmosphere of the Earth. Some greenhouse gasses include water vapor, methane, ozone, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide.

We are increasing the climate and the earth's temperature, caused by burning fossil fuels, cutting down rain forests and farming livestock.

These are the main greenhouse gasses

that cause climate change:

  • carbon dioxide (CO2)

  • methane

  • nitrous oxide

  • fluorinated gases


Experts believe that most of the change in the climate is caused by human activities.

Energy use is by far, the greatest source of human produced greenhouse gas emissions. That involves transportation, electricity and heat, buildings, manufacturing and construction, fugitive emissions and other fuel combustion.

  • Burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.

  • Cutting down forests (deforestation). Trees help to maintain the climate by taking in CO2 from the air. So when they are cut down, that helpful act is gone and the carbon from in the trees is let go into the air, adding to the greenhouse effect.

  • Increasing livestock farming. Some animals get out big amounts of methane when their digestive system works.

  • Fertilisers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide gas into the air.

Fluorinated gases have a very strong warming result, up to 23 000 times more than CO2. Gladly they are let out in smaller amounts.

Carbon dioxide, comes from the ocean, decomposing vegetation and other biomass, venting volcanoes, naturally.

By natural causes methane is usually found below ground and under the seafloor, and is formed by both geological and biological processes.

By natural causes nitro oxide can usually be found on land by bacteria in soils and in the water, especially in oceans.

Fluorinated gases can’t be found naturally. By human activities it can be found in different products such as fridges or aerosol cans.