An international team of scientists recently published a report stating that human activities are causing changes to Earth’s climate.
Nations around the world gathered in Kyoto, Japan, in December, 1997 to discuss the importance of these climatic changes.
The report links increases in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to the observed increase in the average surface temperature of the earth.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases when we burn fossil fuels, that is coal, oil, and gas for electricity, transportation and heat.
Cutting down forests and other industrial processes also cause atmospheric carbon dioxide to increase.
Although scientists agree there is a link between average surface temperature of the earth and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is not clear how climate around the world will change as carbon dioxide continues to be added to the atmosphere.
Some likely changes include a rise in sea level, longer periods of drought, the melting of polar ice and glaciers, and an increase in the numbers and strength of hurricanes and other tropical storms.
You are about to undertake a scientific investigation to help us better understand how the climate in different regions of the world may be affected as average surface temperature of the earth continues to rise.