Tackling Climate Change in Oxford

The earth's climate has changed a number of times over many hundreds of thousands of years. However, due to the fossil fuels that we have burnt over the past 200 years, there has been a build-up of 'greenhouse gases', such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere.

This build-up is trapping heat in the atmosphere which means weather patterns are changing. We are seeing higher average temperatures and more extreme weather events such as flash floods. Globally, the ten hottest years on record have all occurred since the beginning of the 1990s and in Central England average temperatures have risen almost 1°C since 1914.

Tackling climate change is one of the biggest challenges faced by this generation. The first step is to make sure our community understands the challenge of climate change and what they can do about it.

Page last reviewed 21 Jan 2011