Global climate change is caused by many natural processes, such as volcanic activity, forest fires and patterns of solar activity.
Since the industrial revolution, humans have been burning increasing quantities of fossil fuels -- oil, coal and gas -- releasing carbon into the atmsophere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2).
Carbon dioxide is an important "greenhouse gas" (GHG), which traps more of the sun's energy and causes the atmosphere to heat up. This is the process known as "global warming". Atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and more potent GHGs have increased sharply in recent decades.
The environmental impacts of climate change are potentially devastating
Increasing temperatures affect the weather by altering oceanic and atmospheric currents, and melting glaciers and icesheets. Rainfall can be increased or reduced, as can temperatures (shifting ocean currents can bring colder polar air to a region).
Predictions for the UK suggest a warmer, wetter future climate, with milder winters and increasing periods of summer drought. However, scientific predictions in this field are changing very rapidly as our understanding of climate change deepens.
Climate change is set to accelerate as feedback mechanisms kick in. The action of these mechanisms is the basis for the concept of ecological "tipping points", the triggering of a chain of events that flip an ecosystem from one state to another.
Many species could struggle to adapt to the changes that lie ahead because of the speed at which they are likely to happen. One of the most important conservation goals is to ensure a sufficiently robust and resilient, landscape scale habitat that allows species to move freely as they respond to changing conditions. The creation of new native woodland is integral to this vision, and the Woodland Trust aims to double UK tree cover over the coming decades.
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