Climate Change Pages

These pages are about the climate change that is being caused by human activities. This is the most important issue that faces us in the world today. They describe what it is, what it means, and what we can and must do about it.

Last updated 2 February 2010

I have a lot of knowledge about this subject, which is not doing much good locked away in my head so I have written these pages to try and pass it on.

There are thousands of sites out there with information about climate change. Lots are filled with information that is either too basic or too detailed. Some are filled with sensationalist, and sometimes ill-informed, statements that are either over-the-top "we're all doomed" or overly optimistic. And they all tend to be focused on a specific part of the subject for example: what it is or why it's bad or a dozen thing you can do to fix it.

The aim of this website is to offer you a complete summary of the climate change issue.

I am trying to illustrate how our world is likely to change with understanding based on real evidence...rather than second-hand sound bites.
And I am trying not to paint too optimistic or pessimistic a picture.
Hopefully I can give you some useful ideas about what you can do to make the most effective difference.
Throughout the site I have added links to what you should find are reliable sources of further information (including official UK and international data).

Follow this link for information about how these web pages are structured. Notice that I have tried to design the site so that you can read through a summary of each topic, with the ability to delve into more detail about specific points of interest.

These pages are always going to be a work-in-progress so follow this link for history of updates. If you are returning to this site, you can skim through this to see what is new since your last visit.

Contact me

If you have any hopefully constructive thoughts about these pages, or useful resources I have missed, please e-mail me contact [@] chrisbeales.net. I apologise in advance if it takes a little while to get back to you but I do appreciate your interest.

My personal thoughts

Climate change is a hard subject to discuss because, whilst it is so serious and important, I can see that it goes against our basic instincts to actually deal with it. Life is tough enough, and it is in our nature to worry about the day-to-day, rather than what the world will be like in 30 years time.

I hope that this is not just an exercise in me writing out my knowledge to relieve some of my own guilt. I hope I have cut through the sensationalism and information overload, to give you something reliable and understandable. More than anything else, I hope that you get inspired and get fired-up about this.

If you can pass on the passion and hope...that we need to push each other, and the governments that we elect, to sustainably change our lives to reduce the impact of climate change...maybe that hope will get back to me, and mine and all of the other websites and resources won't have been written in vain.

You know, it really is a beautiful world out there, it is important that we try and keep it that way.

Chris Beales

I trained as an environmental scientist, with particular interest in meteorology and modelling; and my day job is as a hydrologist working for the UK Environment Agency. And my carbon footprint is too big...