Explainer: Why is our climate changing? [KS1]

Narrator: Some days it can be raining, or sunny, snowing, raining again! Rain, sun, snow, wind are all different types of weather. If we know what kind of weather a place has over a long time, we call that its climate.

Somewhere hot and dry, won't have the same type of plants and animals plants and animals as somewhere hot and wet.

You couldn't find a fish living up a tree, or could you? There is a huge layer of gases around the planet called the atmosphere. This contains a layer of greenhouse gases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane.

The greenhouse gas layer acts a bit like a blanket, trapping heat and keeping everything here warm and safe. But like a blanket it can also trap too much heat. Like being in a classroom on a hot day, if we close some of the windows, the room very quickly gets hotter and uncomfortable.

The closed windows are letting the light and the heat in, but not out again. The windows are like the earths layer of greenhouse gases, only made from glass instead of gas.

As humans burn fossil fuels and farm unsustainably, more greenhouse gases are being released into the atmosphere. This means that more heat is getting trapped and the planet is getting hotter.

We're getting more extreme weather like heatwaves, floods and storms. In cold parts of the world, ice and snow are melting. When ice on land melts, more water goes into the oceans. If we carry on getting hotter, the waves at the beach will come in further and we might just find a fish, in a place that used to be a forest.

Our actions can hurt the planet, but we can also help heal the planet. And we can all make a difference. If we stop closing the windows the room stops getting hotter, then we can all breath a little easier and live safe in the knowledge that our climate won't continue to change.