Melting of arctic ice caps between 1984 (bottom) and 2012 (top). Source: Wikipedia
The climate of the Earth’s surface has always moved with the times. But the planet’s climate is now changing around us with more speed than ever and scientists are looking hard at what’s happening across a huge range of areas.
What’s going up into the atmosphere, how different ecosystems are responding, the changes in levels of sea and ice, the future of food production, predicting the weather far ahead, comparing today’s climate with the past, the ways that people around the world are having to adapt… These are all areas that researchers are trying to understand.
In the Climate Change Zone, you will meet scientists researching how cars and factories affect the air and the climate of the whole planet, looking at what makes the air we breathe unhealthy, making new biodegradable plastics from orange peel, or looking at fossils to understand what climate was like in the past.