Extreme Weather 2018 : Is this Climate Change? October 2018

Summary: Climate on this planet is always changing. Over hundreds of thousands of years there have been heating and cooling events, with at least five ice ages. Most of these variations can be attributed to Earth’s orbit, the sun’s radiation and the planet heating. However, since the 19th century scientists believe that the rapid heating of the earth is a result of man-made climate change. Greenhouse gases trap heat from the sun and that causes the earth to warm. That in turn leads to melting ice caps and global temperatures rising. The summer of 2018 saw extremely hot temperatures across the northern hemisphere. From deadly heat waves across Asia, Europe and Great Britain to killer humidity in eastern North America and extremely dry conditions in the normally wet west. Is this the new normal? And can these conditions be attributed to climate change?