Climate Change is Happening Right Now!
Greenhouse Gases
Our World 's climate is changing! Most of the experts agree that it is as a result of an increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the earth's atmosphere. Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), and other gases are natural components of the atmosphere, and help to keep heat from the sun from escaping back into space and leaving our planet cold and uninhabitable. But ever since the industrial revolution, human activities have caused the amount of these gases in the atmosphere to increase, beyond natures ability to cope, resulting in a steady increase in the earth's overall temperature.
Our World is Heating Up! - - - Global Warming Is REAL!
Historically, changes to the earth's temperature and climate have typically occurred quite slowly, sometimes over a period of thousands of years, more rarely these changes have also occurred somewhat rapidly on a geological timescale; sometimes in a matter of decades. Since the late 1800s, the average surface temperature of the earth has increased by 0.5°F to 1.0°F. The nine warmest years on record have occurred in the last 10 years, and it is continuing to warm. By 2050, the earth's temperature is expected to warm by another 1°F to 4.5°F. While such increases in temperature might seem small at a local level, on a global scale they can have drastic impacts on the earth's delicate climate systems.
The Cause
In this most recent period, all signs point to humans as the primary cause of the rapid increase in the earth's temperature. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, natural gas and the distruction of the rainforest (the lungs of the planet) are the primary sources of greenhouse gas emissions, but a number of other gases used in different industrial processes also contribute to total GHG emissions, such as perfluorocarbons (PFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
A Changing Planet
The earth's climate is an intricate and sensitive system involving winds, ocean currents and temperatures, precipitation patterns, and surface conditions that factor in solar reflectivity and water absorption and release depending on whether there is vegetation, desert, snow, or ice. We already witness the effects of this sensitive system through the periodic changes of El Nino and La Nina in the South Pacific, with their sweeping influence on weather conditions across the world. A warmer earth will likely mean a number of changes to the earth's climate; many of which can already be witnessed, such as in melting glaciers and polar ice caps, and increases in global sea level. Clean My World is trying to clean your world and reverse climate change! With your help, we can do it!
Worldwide sea levels
The oceans have already risen by 4-8 inches in the past 100 years
Today, glaciers are receding at an alarming rate, and most are expected to disappear entirely in the next 20 to 30 years. Glacier National Park in the U.S., for example, will probably not have any glaciers left by the year 2030. More recently, the first-ever hurricane in the South Atlantic, Catarina, appears to be yet another sign of climate changes.
Hurricane Katrina
The 2005 hurricanes may just be the first many major catastrophes in the United States resulting from dramatic changes to the earth's climate now underway.
An Unknown Future
If WE don't do something, within this century, sea level may rise by as much as one meter, flooding major population centers across the world, although a sudden rush of polar melting could cause much greater sea level rise. All low-lying islands less than a meter above sea level would disappear completely. Much worse, the earth's climate systems could be completely altered, causing some places to change to desert, others to experience heavier rain, and still others to experience even more severe and frequent storms, such as hurricanes and cyclones. Much of the life adapted to these special climate zones would be unable to survive such changes. It is difficult enough to predict the local weather; exactly how climate change will affect the world's overall weather systems cannot be known, but most scientists expect that even the slightest changes could have severe consequences.
More Needs to Be Done
Climate change threatens to become the world's greatest challenge, completely altering the planet itself and potentially disrupting life as we know it on a global scale. Recognizing this, the international community has taken a number of steps to study the issue and to introduce measures to reduce emissions. To date, however, these efforts have fallen short of an adequate solution.
Clean My World is a great place for YOU to start making a difference!
International Treaties After two decades of careful scientific study and extensive international discussion and negotiation, in 1992 United Nations members adopted the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a binding international agreement committing nations to take steps to seriously address the challenges of climate change. This agreement formed the backbone of later discussions around how the international community would adopt measures to combat climate change.
Five years later...
The international community adopted the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement calling for specific action by more industrialized countries to meet emissions reduction targets. The Kyoto Protocol entered into force in February 2005 as an international and legally binding agreement to reduce GHG emissions, including several flexible mechanisms promoting cooperative solutions between industrialized and developing nations for reducing emissions. Both the United States and Australia have rejected the Protocol, citing potential risks to their economies and the unfair advantage of developing countries — which require no emissions reductions despite dramatic increases in their own GHG emissions.
Not Doing Enough Despite the extensive effort to adopt internationally-binding measures to address greenhouse gas emissions and global warming, the Kyoto Protocol itself is not expected to make a substantial impact on reducing the risk of climate change, only delaying it.
We, the ordinary people of the world, can change that! YOU can make a difference by committing to help Clean My World!
The Right Leadership? Meeting this challenge is not beyond our technical capabilities. New technologies that promote more efficient or alternative use of fuels, for example, can dramatically reduce human-produced GHG emissions. Hybrid-electric cars, solar energy, wind power, and ultra-efficient technologies that range from power stations to toasters provide immediate improvements to our consumption of fossil fuels. Better ways of handling our trash and of running our industries can also reduce significant GHG emissions into our atmosphere. But until the right incentives are in place to promote these more widely in the market they will remain somewhat more expensive, poorly understood, and not extensively used in practice. As a result, true action must come from political leadership — the determination to call for action and establish the right policies and market incentives for real change to happen.
Despite the political and economic uncertainties of addressing climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, many governments around the world are taking the issue seriously and have introduced actions where the rubber meets the road. These actions include policies and regulations requiring emission reductions, the creation of emissions trading platforms (where GHG reductions receive credits that can be traded on the open market), and a variety of voluntary and local initiatives to cut emissions. Some of these efforts stem directly from the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, while others, like initiatives in the State of California or by local communities and non-profit organizations, have emerged independently. Whatever the ultimate answer to this global problem, innovative climate change solutions for the future will likely begin with many of these initiatives.
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