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| Activities like driving cars, burning coal for electricity and travelling in airplanes produce greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. These gases gather in the atmosphere surrounding the earth and trap the sun's heat. The Earth has always had a certain amount of naturally occuring greenhouse gases, from animals and human activity which help create the 'greenhouse effect'. The greenhouse effect is the trapping of the sun's heat by these gases to keep the planet at a hopsitable temperature. It is the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere due to increased human activity which is causing global warming and hence climate change. |
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| Diagram copied with kind permission from the Ministry for the Environment, Wellington, NZ, Understanding Climate Change Booklet, 2007, p.3 |
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