Climate Change – What can we do?

What is climate change?

First of all, what is climate change? Our weather has always been variable, right? This is where it starts getting complicated. ‘Weather’ refers to short-term variations in the atmosphere over a short time – it’s what you see out of the window. Weather presenters on television usually talk about what it’s been like in a particular region for that day, and what you can expect over the next few days (although it’s not always that accurate). Longer term forecasts are less predictable – remember the ‘barbecue summer’ we were promised in 2009? It went horribly wrong!

What the forecasters don’t really talk about though is climate. Climate describes the typical weather patterns in a region over a very long time – at least 30 years – the typical average temperatures and rainfall for example. Climate change is a shift in those typical patterns. BBC Science & Environment has set out a simple guide to climate change, its impact, what governments can do about it and what individuals can do. You can read it here.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has developed a very helpful Climate Dictionary which explains many of the ‘buzz words’ in climate conversations. It explains the difference between climate and weather, global warming and climate change as well as terms like greenhouse gases, carbon sink and net zero. Definitely worth bookmarking!

Another very rich resource is available on The Royal Society website. Its section on Climate change: evidence and causes offers a Climate change in 60 seconds video summarising the key points as well as providing short answers to 20 key questions about climate change.

What is Welsh Government doing about Climate Change?

Welsh Government’s Climate Action Wales website sets out the actions it is supporting, including saving energy, making travel more climate friendly, thinking about waste, and ‘stuff’ we use and how we use it, and adapting to climate change. Their website has a series of videos for each of these action points. There is also a link to subscribe to their regular Climate Change Bulletin.

What is Swansea Council doing about Climate Change?

You can read about Swansea Council’s strategies and policies for climate change and nature recovery here. It starts by stating:

The effects of climate change are already being felt in Swansea. In recent years, Swansea has experienced flooding, extreme storms and wildfires. This means climate change is not only a global but a local problem with significant local impacts particularly for the most vulnerable members of our community.
Swansea Council

The Council declared a state of Climate Emergency in 2019 and followed that up with an action plan. You can read their strategy here.

What can we do about Climate change?

It’s understandable that people can feel helpless in the face of the advancing impact of climate change. Certainly, it requires world leaders to take global action and the United Nations has been bringing together almost every country to its Conference of the Parties (COP) global climate summits. The UK hosted COP26 in 2021 and COP27 was held in Egypt. But individuals can play a part in reducing our impact on the climate. A BBC article from November 2022 outlines 4 ways we can do this:

Insulate your home.
Cut down on food waste and eat less red meat.
Drive less and fly less.
Think before you buy.

and this infographic from GREENMATCH offers 12 tips on saving energy at home: