Climatic Changes Introduction to Climate Change What is climate change? Greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) trap heat in the earth’s atmosphere. Without them, too much heat would escape and earth’s surface would freeze. However, increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere causes earth’s surface to heat more and the climate to change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was set up in 1988 and is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. The following are key facts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era due to population growth and economic growth; Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide are now higher than the last 800,000 years (they have increased from a preindustrial level of about 275 ppm of carbon dioxide to about 400 ppm of carbon d...