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The Changing Climate |
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| Over these pages, we have discovered that the weather can change very rapidly and also from place to place. However, the overall climate of the Earth also changes, although this generally occurs over a much longer time period. | |||
| Ice Age... | In the past, these changes
have taken place over thousands or millions of years, and have included major events such
as the last Ice Age. At this time, approximately |
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| These long-term changes are natural, and have occurred throughout the history of the Earth. However, it is now feared that much faster changes are taking place as a result of human activity. Some of these changes are described in more detail in the following pages. To find out more, let's start with a look at air pollution. |
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18,000 years ago, the weather was so cold
that the polar ice sheets grew to cover one third of the Earth in ice. Temperatures were
approximately 3°C (5°F) cooler than they are now, and the ice was more than 240 metres
(790ft) thick.