If Climate science is hard, Let Youth4Climate help you

Does climate change really exist?

Does it mean that the climate will change to another form?

Are there any differences between climate and weather? If yes, which is bigger?

Will Earth explode if climate change continues with rising greenhouse gases?

Have you ever asked such questions when learning about climate change?

If so, I’m afraid we’re misunderstanding about climate change 😅

As a rather “headache” and “abstract” field, climate change is happening and has significant impacts on the lives of all mankind. However, the basic concepts of climate and climate change are sometimes still misunderstood by inaccurate information sources.

To understand more about the current state of climate change and explain afore-mentioned questions, let us listen to the analyses from experts that Youth4Climate had the opportunity to exchange.

Basic concepts

Before “introducing” climate, let’s take a look at some basic knowledge about climate science that we need to pay attention to. Perhaps, you have gone through these as well during your geography classes.

Climate is understood as the average degree of weather in a given space and a long period of time (usually 30 years). The climate is usually relatively stable.

The weather, which we still observe and care about every day in our lives, is fully defined as the state of the atmosphere at a certain time which is determined by a combination of several factors: temperature, pressure, humidity, wind velocity, rain and so on.

Global warming refers to a gradual increase in Earth’s temperature due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These greenhouse gases reduce the amount of Earth’s radiation released into the universe, thereby heating the Earth’s lower atmosphere and surface.

The truths about climate change

If you follow the radio and television regularly, the phrase “climate change” will not be too strange “. But what do we understand about climate change and do what we hear about it really exist?

Climate change is the term used to refer to climate change (definition from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as UNFCCC) that is attributed directly or indirectly to human activities that change the composition of the global atmosphere. and contribute to natural climate variability over comparable times. Climate change determines the difference between the long-run mean values ​​for a climate parameter or statistic. The average is performed over a defined period of time, usually several decades. [1]

Let’s take a look back, in at least the past ten years, you have seen hotter weather, yearly fluctuation in temperature and erratic rain and storms. During the 20th century, scientists measured the trend of temperature increase across continents and oceans and the average temperature from 2001 to 2005 was 0.440C higher than the global average. The land has become warmer than the sea surface and the temperature in the Poles has increased at least twice as much as the world average [2].

According to the IPCC, human activity is estimated to contribute approximately 1.0 Celsius degree increase in global warming compared to the pre-industrial era, with a threshold in the range of 0.8 to 1.2 Celsius degree; Global warming tends to increase to 1.5 Celsius degree between 2030 and 2052 if it continues to maintain the same trend at current rates.

The manifestations of climate change are increasingly evident and breakout everywhere. Greenland has lost 3.8 million tons of ice since 1992 and the rate of ice loss has increased from 33 billion tons / year in the 1990s to 254 billion tons / year in the last decade [3]. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) data, ice is melting in Greenland 7 times faster than in the 1990s. extraordinarily heavy rains and storms occur each year, for example a 10% increase in extreme rains, making the storm season in the North Atlantic in 2020 extremely severe [4]. Biodiversity is gradually lost as habitat is affected by extreme weather events.

Youth and climate change

Young people’s perceptions of climate change are extremely important because we are the future of the world and are directly affected by climate change. Accounting for 57% of the total Vietnamese population (2019), Vietnamese youth are the core force to promote positive change in society [5]. Youth’s creativity and enthusiasm for action will contribute initiatives and manpower to develop and implement climate change responses

Improving climate education for young people

A special report from the United Nations Development Program on “Youth Action for Environment in Vietnam” shows that nearly 400 young Vietnamese have raised their support to respond to climate change, expressed their desire to take part in action on climate change and contribute a voice to the development of climate policies in our country.

Vietnamese youth participate in the camp to write the Report “Youth for the Environment in Vietnam”. Photo: UNDP Viet Nam

In order to strengthen voice and action on climate change, every young person needs to have a full and solid awareness to come up with an appropriate direction to implement and spread the importance of climate change to the community.

With the aim of helping Vietnamese youth to access the most intimate and “youthful” official documents on climate change and the environment, Youth4Climate has developed a series of knowledge modules on various topics. Young people are particularly concerned about climate change. The modules are shown through their own understanding with teenage illustrations that will make climate change easy.

Click on HERE to discover our treasure trove of knowledge right away !!!

[1] Các khái niệm, định nghĩa liên quan đến BĐKH 

[2] Nguyên nhân và ảnh hưởng của BĐKH 

[3] Mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet from 1992 to 2018

[4] Attribution of 2020 hurricane season extreme rainfall to human-induced climate change

[5] Kết quả toàn bộ Tổng điều tra dân số và nhà ở 2019 

Minh Thao – UNDP Viet Nam