WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE?
There are many dimensions to climate change and here we provide a simple introduction to these and what we mean by climate change. At its simplest our climate is our average weather over a long period of time. The forces needed to change this are complex, powerful and hazardous.
OUR WEATHER
We are all familiar with Ireland’s weather. One minute it’s raining, the next it is sunshine. It never gets really hot like Spain, in winter and we do not get the snow fall and freezing cold that happens in continental Europe. The most familiar forecast is that of sunny spells and scattered showers.
OUR CLIMATE
It is difficult to predict exactly what our weather will be like next summer. If we could do this, planning our holidays would be easy. We can guess that summer will be warm, around 19 degrees Celsius and winter will be cold, around 3 degrees Celsius. By collecting weather information all around the country every hour and by analysing these records over a long period of time, typically 30 years, average values for Ireland are calculated.
For more information on climate and weather forcasting see Met Eireann.
This means that tourists can look up maps of Ireland and get information on the likely temperature when they plan to visit, but even with this information they may be in for a surprise as our weather is very variable.
It is not just tourists that use this information and it is not just temperature that is of interest. Farmers, planners and engineers need to know climate data so that they can sow the right crops, design roads, drains, buildings and bridges correctly.
This is particularly important as structures that are not correctly designed can be damaged by weather conditions, or incur extra cost if they are built for severe conditions that are unlikely to occur e.g. drains may be designed for a once in a hundred year flood, i.e. the level of flood water expected at least once in 100 year period.
CLIMATE CHANGE
Climate change is a significant change in the “average weather” or climate that a region experiences. Climate change can be caused by natural factors such as variations in sunlight intensity. However, the term climate change is now generally used to refer to changes in our climate due to the build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This build up is caused by excess emissions, these gases are due to certain human activities, like burning fossil fuels for energy, transport and heating.
For more information on the science of climate change check out Dr. Conor Murphy's presentation in conference centre!