Tutor profile: Laura V.

How is climate change going to affect our sees and oceans?

Knowing that oceans and sees are covering 72% of the Earth, it is important to look at the consequences for these water bodies under a changing climate. As you have probably heard, CO2 levels are constantly rising. The CO2 in the air leads to acidification in the oceans, and this in turn has a negative impact on water organisms. Furthermore, another important thing to consider is the heating of these water bodies, as water can absorb a lot of heat. A consequence of this is, for example, thinning of ice shelves.

Climate change is not only a current issue; climates have been changing for the entire existence of the earth. Why is it that so much commotion about this issue has been made in recent decades?

It is true that for the earth's existence, climates have changed due to various reasons. The movements of the Earth (tilting, eccentricity and precession) all had an effect over thousands of years. However, it is important to notice that today's climate has been changing at an enormous speed and that with the emergence of industrialisation, more and more gases are emitted into our atmosphere, causing a greenhouse effect. Now, this has naturally many consequences, including for biodiversity. It is so, that due to this high speed of climatic change, many species are unable to keep up with the changes, whereby many are threatened or even go extinct.

What is the p-value?

The p-value is a probability that an obtained test value is as extreme the observed test results, under the H null hypothesis.