It seems logical enough to think that the sun, which provides the source of energy for all life, is to blame for climate change. The fact is though that there has actually been a slight decrease in the amount of energy given off the sun in recent decades, so it most certainly isn't to blame.
Greenhouse gasses such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane are amongst the biggest contributors, and in short they cause a chemical imbalance in the Earth's atmosphere. This imbalance leads to what is known as the Greenhouse Effect, and when combined with the suns energy it causes the overall increase in temperature.Roughly two thirds of the planet's surface is covered with water, so understandably it's difficult for us to monitor anywhere close to all of it.
Even with the incredible number of scientific research that is taking place to better understand what effect climate change is having on our oceans, we're still only at the tip of the iceberg. Pun intended.Trees play the important role of absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere, which helps to regulate the climate. Once you start cutting those trees down, they can no longer play that role and the CO2 that would have been absorbed by the trees instead goes into the atmosphere.
Basically trees are one of the few natural layers of protection we have for greenhouse gasses, and cutting them down it putting us at a massive disadvantage.440 million treesTrees are essential to our ecosystem, as they reduce carbon and release oxygen into the atmosphere and as the Trillion Trees initiative drives the global movement behind tree planting forward, Science Week wants you to get involved and make a difference in Ireland and find out what trees do for our environment.