Easy News: Extreme weather and climate change

1. 

   Recently there has been unusual extreme weather across the world, including heatwaves in the USA, Canada and UK and floods in Europe and China.

2. 

   A heatwave is when there are excessively high temperatures happening for more than a few days.

3. 

   Flooding is when water overflows and covers an area that is usually dry. It is often caused by lots of rain.

4. 

   In July, areas of Belgium, Germany and Switzerland were flooded, leading to houses being destroyed and people dying.

5. 

   There was also flooding in England, especially in London where hospitals and tube stations were affected.

6. 

   Henan province in China also flooded, after a year’s amount of rain fell in just 4 days. 73 people were reported dead and many others had to leave their homes.

7. 

   Also in July, temperatures reached over 50 degrees Celsius in North West America. This is a new record.

8. 

   The human body usually works at around 37 degrees Celsius, so 50 degrees is dangerous and can even cause death.

9. 

   The UK also experienced a heatwave, with some areas reaching 33 degrees Celsius. The average temperature in July is around 21 degrees, so it was much hotter than normal.

10. 

    Many scientists say this extreme weather is happening because of climate change caused by humans.

11. 

    The burning of fossil fuels such as coal or oil produces greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. This traps heat in the atmosphere, causing temperatures to rise. A warmer atmosphere also allows more water to be held in clouds, which leads to more rain.

12. 

    Scientists believe that this extreme weather will continue to happen more often or get worse unless urgent action is taken now to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide to zero by 2030.

13. 

    Without action being taken to tackle climate change, global temperatures could rise by between 3 and 5 degrees by the year 2100, leading to many land areas being flooded and ending up underwater. This would mean many animals, plants and sea life become extinct.

14. 

    The United Nations will hold a meeting about climate change called COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland in October and November 2021.

15. 

    The meeting will involve many countries talking about how they can lower carbon dioxide emissions to try and slow climate change before it is too late.

16. 

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