• What is climate change?

Climate changes are the changes and shifts happening in the Earth’s climate over a long period of time. Averaging weather patterns and graphs in one specific place to measure climate change.

• What is causing climate change?

As of now, the main culprit for the causes of climate change would be humanity. Releasing a substantial amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for decades (approximately 60 years) to use for our agriculture, transportation, and electricity sources. The energy to power these sources and releasing carbon dioxide into the climate comes from greenhouse gasses, burning fossil fuels and nonrenewable energy, which have caused combustion in the atmosphere creating severe weather shifts and climate changes.

However, before human activities, carbon dioxide and heavy soot could be found from the eruptions of volcanoes. Causing similar weather events to Earth. The key difference is that the volcanoes are natural, doing it at a steady pace to help Earth’s atmosphere and allow infrared radiation and keep temperatures stable, but humans are proceeding this process way too fast and an unsteady rate from the amount of greenhouse gasses released into the atmosphere.

Greenhouse gasses include carbon dioxide, methane – cow fart, nitrous oxide, and water vapor. All contributing to rising global temperatures and extreme weather events. This happens from human activities that go through the process of combustion, releasing carbon dioxide and water vapor into the atmosphere, such as burning coal/nonrenewable energy, and causing the sun’s heat to get trapped and have the Earth’s temperature rapidly rise. Although, some greenhouse gasses are natural and needed to keep temperatures on earth warm and have the ability to grow crops. The natural greenhouse gas is water vapor, but when combined with carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, it causes the atmosphere to be filled with dangerous gasses and rise in temperature, as they trap infrared radiation from Earth’s surface.

The greenhouse gases will then cause extreme weather events as the sun’s radiation will not have anywhere to bounce off if the atmosphere is weakening, and rely on the white ice caps. This creates a chain of events as ice caps rises, more moisture is released into the air, sea level rises, more rain, wind, and storms are up in our clouds, and affect humanity and cause disasterous weather events, therefore, climate change.

• In 2019, the “school strike 4 climate” movement started in Aotearoa. It’s still continuing today. Why do ākonga (students) throughout Aotearoa and globally want to go on strike from school and protest?

Many students across the globe have chosen to strike and protest as a way for policies/systems and constitutions to change in order to protect the earth. From a continuation of burning fossil fuels, greenhouse gasses, and mass production of agriculture and instead switch to renewable energy sources and declare a climate emergency, regerative economies and go against environmental destruction.

Having students go out and protest instead of being at school would send a very strong message to the political leaders of today. As Greta Thunberg stated, “This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!”. It shows how there isn’t any point in going to school to study in future, if there is no hope for a future. Young audiences sacrifice learning time just for the leaders of today and hope something is done to prevent further weather destruction, habitat loss, global rising temperatures and extinction, so that the children of today can live in a proper environment that they are inevitably forced to inherit.

1. What is climate change and how do we know its happening (hint: relate to keeling curve/graph activity)?

Climate change is the long-term differences in the global temperatues and weather-patterns. They are primarily from human activities like burning fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas. When we burn these fuels they release greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and these gases wrap around the planet like a blanket which makes the Earths heat trapped and making the global temperatures rise. A quote showing how dangerous this is for us and the Earth: “We are smothering the planet with greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuels, creating a blanket around the Earth that traps heat and forces global temperatures to rise. It is our activities—our destruction of the natural world—that have caused this crisis.” – Dr Jane Goodall. We know that climate change is happening because of scientific evidence using a graph called the Keeling Curve. The Keeling Curve is a long-term graph where it tracks the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earths atmosphere.

2. What is causing climate change? (150 words)

Climate change is mainly caused from human activities that that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the greenhouse gases that normally release from these human activties are carbon dioxide, methane and more. The primary cause of climate change is burning fossil fuels, fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Humans burn fossil fuels for transport, industry, and energy. In complete combustion it reacts carbon in the fossil fuels with oxygen to make more carbon dioxide and incomplete combustion means releasing soot and carbon monoxide. These gases can make the greenhouse effects more intense. Earth would reflect back solar heat into space but because of the greenhouse gases Earth gets hotter as the greenhouse gases act as a blanket which warms the blanket. Other things that cause climate changes are Deforestation which is cutting down forests and trees which release  the stored carbon dioxide. It also takes away trees that absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, Agriculture and Livestock with Cows and sheep in where they make huge amounts of methane when their digesting and release greenhouse gases.

3. In 2019, the “school strike 4 climate” movement started in Aotearoa. It’s still continuing today. Why do ākonga (students) throughout Aotearoa and globally want to go on strike from school and protest? (~150 – 200 words

Students around Aoteroa globally strike because they realize that the climate change that is happening to their planet threatens their future and they realise they need to intervine and do something about it. Students see the consequences at first in Aoetearoa, they see the intense floods, prolonged droughts, huge coastal erosion. Student around Aoteroa and around the globe see the rising temperatures and the sea levels rising, they also see the ecosystem collapse and seeing all these signs the students in Aoeteroa and the globe this is the reason why the students decide to go on strike. The movement or protest primary or most important demand is to stop the fossil fuel exploration. They want to invest a lot into renewable energy and lowering the emissions and keep the warming to stay at 1.5 C. The students want to protest for a fair shift to be more sustainable and have more sustainable economies wants to make sure workers that work in the carbon invested industries are not left beind. In conclusion the students decide to strike because they think missing a day of school is a needed sacrifice to have a planet where they can live in.