Climate change isn’t just about a few degrees variation
Here it is the altering of environment faster than we can possibly predict the consequences. The debate is not whether changes are coming but how severe they’ll be.
Global Warming
Global warming is the gradual raise in temperature of the Earth's surface that has aggravated considerably since the industrial revolution. Over the past two decades the effect has become more than noticeable. The global average temperature has increased 0.4 to 0.8 degrees C since the late 1800's. Many experts estimate an additional 1.4 to 5.8 degree rise in the average temperature by 2100.
We have upset the balance
Global warming is occurring because we have upset the delicate balance of gases that traps heat in our atmosphere and allows life to exist. A combination of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor traps enough heat in our atmosphere to allow life to exist. But we have upset the balance.
Substantial evidence exists that most of this warming has been caused by human activities. We have altered the chemical composition of the atmosphere through an increase of greenhouse gases – primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide.
Green-house gases, the hazardous of them being CO2, are emitted every time we burn fossil fuels like coal and petrol. These greenhouse gases, act to form a planetary blanket retaining too much of the sun's heat, and cause global warming. This temperature rise in the earth's atmosphere is causing increasingly severe environmental changes such as desertification, melting icecaps and sea level rise, not to forget, species extinction and the spread of disease.
Too much CO2
We have introduced massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels like coal, building energy-inefficient buildings, and driving cars that use too much petrol to get us from one place to another. Earth’s atmosphere now contains 32% more CO2 than it did in the mid 1800s. That means we are basically changing our planet's climate. The northern hemisphere is now significantly warmer than any point in the last 1,000 years.
There is serious scientific disagreement about such crucial questions as to how fast and far temperatures, seas, and storm strength could rise. Warmer waters, could lead to more hurricanes. Studies predict that hurricanes might be torn apart by wind conditions associated with rising temperatures. This uncertainty is humanity’s biggest foe, experts say, that the ever multiplying global population in coming decades, will be ever more vulnerable to floods, famine, and other climate-driven threats.
The dangers arising from global warming such as drought, famine, rising seas — appear to be decades off. The way to prevent them is with sacrifices in intellectual way: with smaller cars, bigger investments in new energy sources, keeping a count of carbon footprints.
Global Warming…matters of life and death…act now!!