Climate change - Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029: children's version

Glossary

Beliefs – A belief is an idea accepted as true; something that is believed.

Creativity – The ability to see many things in new ways and come up with new ideas.

Crop – A crop is a plant grown on a farm.

Drought – A drought is a long period of time (sometimes months or even years) where an area gets less than its normal amount of rain. This can cause water shortages or hurt our farms where we need water to grow certain foods.

Fisheries – A fishery refers to a group of businesses who catch, prepare and sell fish or shellfish.

Flood/Flooding – A flood is when a lot of water overflows onto land that is normally dry.

Global – Global is a way to describe something having to do with the whole earth.

Greenhouse gases - Greenhouse gases are gases in the air that trap heat acting like an invisible ‘blanket’. While we do need some greenhouse gases to keep us warm, too much will make the planet too warm. Right now, the planet has too much greenhouse gases made by humans in the air. We need to both stop making as much greenhouse gases and store some of the extra greenhouse gases already here.

Harvesting – When a crop is fully grown and ready to eat, the farmer must collect it from the fields. This is known as harvesting.

Heat wave - A period of time during which the temperature is a lot higher than normal.

Historic Environment – The environment refers to all our surroundings here on Earth. Our historic environment refers to all the places and things that tell us story from Scotland’s past.

Paramedics – A paramedic is a person who gets called out to help somebody who is sick or injured. They can provide emergency help such as giving medicines. This help is given to the person before or during their ambulance trip to a hospital.

Peatland – Peatland is an area of land made up of peat. Peat is a type of soil made up of dead plants that have not completely rotted. It is formed in wet ground that is not well drained. It takes thousands of years for a large area of peat to form.

Public Services: Our public services refer to the organisations who look after the places we live. This includes the people who run libraries, schools, hospitals and look after our roads.

Tourism – Tourism is when people travel from where they live to another place for fun or to relax. This can be a day trip or a few days holiday.

Traditions – Traditions refer to the events we celebrate or observe and repeat in the same way at the same time of the year/month/week/day. They are generally spent with the same people too. They might relate to our country (such as Robert Burns Day) or our beliefs (such as Easter Sunday).