The Earth's climate is forever changing. Temperatures across the planet have naturally risen and fallen for millions of years causing many changes in the Earth's landscape during that time, resulting in shifts from planet-wide tropical conditions to frozen ice ages.

The last ice age on Earth ended around 10,000 years ago and the planet's climate has been relatively stable since that time. However, over the past 100 years or so the Earth's climate has warmed considerably more than expected.

Scientific research shows that the 20th century was most likely to have been the warmest century for more than 1000 years, with the ten warmest years on record all being noted since 1990.

The majority of scientists agree that, if things carry on as they are, this warming of the Earth will continue and, most likely, accelerate over the coming 100 years, causing potentially dramatic changes to our day-to-day climate.

The general consensus attributes the acceleration of temperatures in the last century to an increase in Greenhouse Gases in the Earth's atmosphere. These gases form a natural layer around the planet, trapping heat from the sun in our atmosphere and keeping the planet warmed to its current temperatures.

However, this layer of gases has increased dramatically in the past 200 years and is currently at its thickest for over 800,000 years. As it thickens, it traps increasing amounts of heat within our atmosphere, causing the planet to warm up quicker than before. This is the effect commonly referred to as Global Warming.

The sharp increase in these greenhouse gases over the past century is put down to human activity. One of the main greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide (also known as CO2) and we are generating vast amounts of additional carbon dioxide - over and above what would otherwise be created naturally - through human activity.

There are two key factors in our activity which are contributing to increased levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The first is the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas to provide power for our day-to-day lives. Burning these fuels releases huge volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and, as large parts of the world develop, so the demand for energy and fuel grows to power our homes, factories, cars, planes and more.

Secondly, we are chopping down more trees than ever before to clear land for development and agriculture, and to produce paper and timber. Trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide so, with fewer trees on the planet, the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere continues to build and contribute to the greenhouse gas layer.

Although it's difficult to precisely predict the climate over the coming century, most scientists are in agreement that we should expect to see average temperature increases of between 1 and 4°C in the coming 70-80 years unless something is done to curb the increase in greenhouse gases.

Although this may not sound much on first inspection, the impact on the Earth's climate is likely to be substantial as a result of this change.

For the UK alone, scientists predict more extreme weather conditions with hotter, dryer summers and warmer but much wetter winters. An increase in erratic weather activity is also leading to increased flooding and storm damage to property in winter months, and more drought conditions in the summer.

A combination of increased rain, the warming and melting of polar ice sheets and the fact that water generally expands when it is warmed are all expected to lead to a rise in sea levels, resulting in severe flooding in parts of the world.

Around the globe, higher temperatures are likely to lead to an increase in disease. Carriers of disease, such as mosquitoes, may move further around the world due to the increasingly warm climates of different countries.

Agriculture is likely to be affected with dryer summers impacting on the quantity and quality of crop production, while wildlife is also expected to suffer as the natural habitat changes.

The truth is that the damage has already been done for the next 30-40 years and any change we make now will not be enough to reverse the expected climate changes for the next 3 to 4 decades. However, what we CAN do is to take action now to make sure things are re-established by the middle of the century rather than continuing to get worse.

The key to reducing global warming and bringing the increase in climate temperatures back to a steady growth level lies in reducing the volume of greenhouse gases being pumped into the atmosphere as a result of human activity.

Making simple changes in our lifestyles can have a dramatic impact on reducing the country's overall emission levels. Our website is packed full of simple but effective ideas that can help you to make a difference to the volume of CO2 that your daily lifestyle creates.

It's true that climate change is a large-scale, worldwide problem with many different individuals, businesses and governments all needing to do their bit to provide a complete solution. However, do not under-estimate the impact that you and your individual actions can have. Every single action makes a difference, not only in the literal sense of putting less CO2 into the atmosphere, but also in a more political sense. Look at it this way: