National Geographic defines climate change as a “long-term alteration of temperature and typical weather patterns” which is causing less predictable and more extreme weather events around the world.

NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) suggests that Earth’s temperature has risen by 0.08°C (0.14°F) per decade since 1880, but the rate of warming since 1981 is more than twice that, at 0.18°C (0.32°F) per decade.

Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2005 and as temperatures rise, our polar ice caps and glaciers are melting at an alarming rate, causing rising sea levels, flooding and coastal land erosion. So, what’s causing climate change?

How deadly climate change is shaping our homes