I am afraid of climate change. What can we do about it?

I can understand you well. Let me first put something into perspective: as archaeologists, we know that the climate is constantly evolving. It is a permanently moving line. The last ice age ended 11,000 years ago, but since then we have known periods that were much warmer (e.g. the Atlantic between 9000 and 5600 years ago was on average warmer than now!) and periods that have been colder, e.g. between the 13th century and the 19th century, with severe winters in which the rivers froze over.

The fluctuation is therefore normal in itself and we are actually still warming up after the cold period that ended in the 19th century.
But: in the last 30 years everything has moved faster than expected. The warmest years of the last 200 years are all between 1989 and now. This is due to the greenhouse effect: the emission of fossil fuels, which started with the industrial revolution. We can only do something about this by being aware of the causes, and by all working together for a greener and more sustainable world.

That sustainability is something you can work on individually, or in context. just look at the websites of the Youth Union for Nature and the Environment (JNM) or Greenpeace. It is important that you don’t literally lose sleep over it, but that you know what is happening and why. It is a natural phenomenon, enhanced by man and by being aware of what is happening and what the effects are, we can respond to it.

Best regards Prof. dr. Tys, archaeologist VUB

(addition by VUB administrator of Ikhebeenvraag.be:

Kevin, you can also take a look at www.climatechallenge.be, a brand new website of WWF, Studio Globo, Erasmus University College Brussels and Vrije Universiteit Brussel about climate change. You can find more information about climate change at http://www.climatechallenge.be/nl/climate-change-word-and-image.aspx.)