Climate Change
The weather changes all the time, from day to day. The way we describe the general weather conditions at a place or region is by its climate. The climate of a place however, can also change over longer periods of time, usually tens, hundreds or even thousands of years.
As we grow older we may notice a gradual shift in the type of weather that we experience. In many parts of Britain, for example, heavy snowfall is now much less frequent than it used to be, because winters have become warmer. Although the change in average winter temperature over the last 25 years has been perhaps only 0.5°C, this change has been enough to affect the climate.
There are many things which may cause the climate to change. The warming up of Britain and of other parts of the world in the last 25 years may be the result of global warming due to mankind's pollution of the air. Alternatively, it may be due to natural variations, like the amount of heat coming from the Sun. Natural variations can also change the climate over much longer periods of time, which we are unable to notice. At the beginning of the 19th century for example, Britain was on average over 1°C colder than it is now, and freezing winters were commonplace. Further back in history, during the Medieval Period in the 12th and 13th centuries, Britain and Europe were almost as warm as they are today, perhaps warmer in some places. Many thousands of years ago, the whole Earth was much colder, when huge ice sheets covered much of Europe, Russia and North America. This was the last Ice Age.
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