This is the second contest hosted by @upmewhale and the topic is

Climate change/Global warming

Below is my entry to the contest.

What's climate change?
According to Wikipedia, climate change occurs when changes in Earth's climate system result in new weather patterns that remain in place for an extended period of time. This length of time can be as short as a few decades to as long as millions of years. source
For global warming, it can be seen as the consequences of human activities from industrial revolution.
These terms are used interchangeably.

What does it mean to you?
Climate change/global warming means a lot to me and my community as it has impacted so many negative effects for example, we now have increased temperature, flood during the rainy season, etc.
Africa as one of the poorest continent on Earth is now experiencing an increase in temperature which is higher than the global mean. Some regions in Africa (example, Nigeria) are projected to experience an increase in hot or even hotter nights as well as longer and more random heat waves.
Every bit of additional global warming adds greater risk for us in Nigeria.
With increase in global warming, we'll have more flood, drought, desertification, heat waves, etc.
This causes more losses in the farm which could lead to food insecurity and finally, survival of the fittest.

To what degree is it an instrument of certain political agendas?
As global warming is used to refer to the concentration of greenhouse gases such as Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere attributes mainly to human activities, debates in the causes and consequences have risen to political agendas such as pointing accusing fingers on other world leaders for causing the changes, using the term for political campaigns and priding for achieving the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
But in general, are politicians not the causes of this climate change?
They blame the industries for flood and other related happenings but are cruising petrol-driven cars, electric light and other heavy appliances that consumes lots of energy.

How can we manage/solve it?
As I said earlier, carbon dioxide is one of the major contributors of global warming (when it's being released from burning of oil, coal and other fossil fuels for energy). We can solve this by using materials that emit little or less of these gases. It will go a long way in reducing the rate of climate change.
We can change the source of energy (from petro and its related materials) to other renewable energy source such as wind, solar, hydro.
We can use energy-efficient appliances. I felt happy when I saw on TV a car that uses electricity, a refrigerator that has high power saver capacity, solar radios and power banks.
We can also reduce water waste even though waste water are recyclable, eat the food we buy (don't waste foods).

What theories and data do you believe and which not?
I do believe that increased release of carbon dioxide is the major cause of global warning and climate change.
I do not believe in blaming developed countries for their high rate of gas emissions because underdeveloped countries do benefit from them ( in terms of import of processed foods and export of raw materials).

What are the main technologies and countries responsible for it

Image source

Like I said above, I'll not blame some countries that are responsible but I'll not hesitate in pointing fingers on countries responsible for this global warming and the technologies as well.
According to the recent analysis published on Wikipedia last year, these countries below were listed according to the level of greenhouse gas emissions.

China
United States of America
European Union (including United kingdom)
India
Russia

Some of the technologies responsible are those that emit high rate of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, hydrofluoricarbon and sulfur hexafluoride.
This is my opinion for the contest Climate change/Global warming.

For the sake of @cheetah, I'll like to show my source of information.

Meaning of climate change: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change_(general_concept)
Effects of climate change in Africa: https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2018-march-2019/global-warming-severe-consequences-africa
Analysis of greenhouse gas emissions 2019: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_greenhouse_gas_emissions
Flood image source: https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/africa/2012/10/2012101283421969871.html
Fossil burning image source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/06/08/were-still-waking-up-to-the-long-term-consequences-of-burning-fossil-fuels/?outputType=amp

**I'll like to mention some users who have motivated me to join contests here on steemit.
@melinda01001000 @xpilar @mustard @hangin @libertycrypto27 @minahaskin @trincowski