What is climate change? Climate change is the gradual warming of the globe. Climate change is caused by pollution in the atmosphere. Certain processes contribute to global warming a lot, for example the burning of coal or a gas powered car. Both of these processes release CO2 into the atmosphere, CO2 is a greenhouse gas meaning infrared protons reflect off of it. This causes heat from sunlight to get trapped inside the atmosphere, which gradually causes the Earth's temperature to rise.
Climate change is currently affecting my field site. About a week ago, all of the tree buds had bloomed, now on April 20th it's snowing. This is exactly what happened with our case study in class, the cherry blossoms bloomed because it was warmer earlier in the year. But due to the early blooming, it would still frost over at night. This caused the blossoms to die. Going back to my field site, the 3 inches of snow we are supposed to get today will most likely cause the blooming trees to die.
One of the ways I learned to combat climate change from class is to plat a lot of trees. Trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, and release oxygen. During assessment 8, I learned about Team Trees and their goal to plant 20 million trees. This goal was already completed, but it wouldn't hurt to plant an extra tree if you get the chance. It doesn't even have to be a tree, even a bush would help out.