Discourse on Climate Change
Abstract: Climate change is considered to be a serious environmental problem .The objective of preventing average global temperature from rising by more than two degree Celsius requires that constructive action be taken in the near-term. Like many other social problems, climate change is closely tied to the burning of oil, coal and gas. The overall strategy should be focused on developing low-carbon or no-carbon energy sources, including renewable energy, and increasing energy efficiency. Reforms at the national level would include: Leveling the playing field between renewable and fossil fuels, and internalizing the latter’s costs by phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and adopting cap and trade systems as well as
…show more content…
This rhetoric suggests that apocalyptic events will unfold as humanity marches blindly forward demanding more and more autos, jet travel, and air-conditioned homes. Once having crossed over the precipice, there will be no returning to that earlier world. The Earth’s atmosphere will have been irreversibly violated and humans must forever reap the consequences of their profligate lifestyle. Whether or not this alarmist view is correct is open to debate. Climate change brings together the disciplines of botany, climatology, biology, atmospheric and oceanic chemistry, glaciology, systems modeling, cloud physics, statistics, economics, and political science. Climate is a statistical summary of weather. Climate change means that the distribution of weather outcomes changes systematically. The Earth’s climate has changed significantly since geologic time. [footnoteRef:4] [4: . Griffin, James M (2003), “The Many Dimension of the Climate Change”, in James M Griffin (Eds.) Global Climate Change: The Science, Economics and Politics, U.K: Edward Elgar, …show more content…
Further, the conference established the United Nation Commission on Sustainable Development to monitor and evaluate the progress on meeting the Rio objectives. Negotiations also began at Rio on a treaty on desertification. Finally, Rio was a trigger for the restructuring of the Global Environment Facility (GEF), set up to finance efforts in developing countries to protect the global environment. Five years later a special session of the United Nation General Assembly, known as the Earth Summit +5, reviewed global progress with the implementation of Agenda 21.[footnoteRef:11] It identified a set of principles - precaution, equity, co-operation and sustainability and a wide range of measures to enable the international community to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at levels that should mitigate climate change. However, no firm targets or deadlines were agreed; developed countries were simply given the voluntary goal of returning greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels. The principle of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities’ was written into the convention, so developed countries were expected to take the lead in combating climate change and to transfer financial and technological resources to developing countries to help them address the problem, but no one was committed to anything specific, apart
Climate change is the change in the “average weather” in a specific location. This can include temperature, precipitation, wind, humidity, and the different seasons. Climate change is caused by the release of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse
Climate change is on the international policy agenda primarily because of warnings from scientists. Their forecasts of a potentially dangerous increase in the average global temperature, fortuitously assisted by unusual weather events, have prompted governments to enter into perhaps the most complicated and most significant set of negotiations ever attempted. Key questions - the rapidity of global climate change, its effects on the natural systems on which humans depend, and the options available to lessen or adapt to such change - have energized the scientific and related communities in analyses that are deeply dependent on scientific evidence and research.
Climate change refers to shifts in the mean state of the climate or in its variability, persisting for an extended period of decades or longer (Ziervogel and Zermoglio, 2009). It is the change in average atmospheric behavior, and change in the patterns of variation around this behavior (Rumbach and Kudva, 2011). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared that climate change is unequivocal as evidenced by observed changes in several global and regional climatic indicators (IPCC, 2007). At the country level, climate change refers to observable changes and permutations (undefined geographic variations) of temperature, rainfall and extreme climate events and their single or collective impacts on various agricultural production (Lasco, et al., 2009).
Global Warming, much of what does or does not happen forty years from now, rests on our actions or inactions taken between now and then. The crucial question is whether we should pour all our resources into mitigation – reducing our carbon emissions. According to scientists who study the climate, there are other environmental problems; “we now face a global crisis in land use and agriculture that could undermine the health, security, and sustainability of our civilization”. Rather than worry too much about emissions, we should accept the world is going to get warmer anyway and adapt to global warming by building better flood defenses and developing drought-resistant crops. We cannot dispute that automobiles, factories, and power plants, displace an unprecedented twenty tons of carbon monoxide per person per year.
Global climate change and its apparent effects have been the subject of much discussion for a number of years. It is often claimed that this change is too advanced and the damage caused by it is irreversible, meaning that any efforts by us to undo this are in vain. Although I agree that our planet has become unalterably changed, I don’t entirely concur that this change is now completely beyond repair.
How would you like to live in a home that is beginning to fall apart, but only to go on about your day and continue to neglect it until it all comes crashing down? Humans and animals share this beautiful planet that we call home. But this beautiful home of ours is being regularly and increasingly torn apart by our own ignorant actions. These actions of ours have begun to unravel the very world in which we live, causing a self-inflicted crisis known as Global Climate Change. Global Climate Change is a severe dilemma, and it is continuously becoming more evident to the world’s population that climate change is being caused by changes in the reflectivity of earth’s atmosphere and surface, the ever changing variations of energy from the sun reaching the earth, and the daunting increase in greenhouse gasses.
For these reasons, global warming stands as one of the most daunting policy issues facing our world today. This is compounded by the debate over the very existence of climate change. While countless sources of empirical evidence testify to the very real presence of climate change the world over, considerable denial of the phenomenon still exists. The argument has been made that evidence about climate change is a gross overstatement, or in some cases, a complete fabrication. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many interest groups with considerable political clout have successfully perpetuated the argument that documented changes in the environment are a product of natural cyclical changes in climate, and are not associated with human activities. However, even the acceptance of this particular brand of reality is no grounds for the disregard of environmental consciousness. Even if one accepts the premise that recent climate change is not resultant of human activity, the rationale behind environmental conservation remains ...
“An introduction to climate change.” Natural Resource Defense Council. Natural Resources Defense Council 8 November 2015 n. pag. Web. 28 November 2015.
Climate change is a long-term change in regional or global climate patterns. From the mid twentieth century to now, there has mostly been a significant increase in average global temperatures. Climate change is a major issue in the world today, and a lot of people feel very differently about the cause of it. The common argument is whether climate change is a natural occurrence or if the recent increase in temperatures is because of humans. Climate change is a natural cycle in the Earth’s weather.
The Earth is currently locked in perpetuating spiral of climate change. While the global climate has unarguably been changing since the dawn of it's manifestation, the once steadied ebb and flow of climate change has become increasingly more unpredictable.The risk of rising sea levels, and drought plaguing the fresh water supply, during the time that flooding and sporadic storm conditions turn once fully inhabited regions into uninhabitable death traps. Climate change catalyzed by human's increased production of carbon dioxide, is more noticeable than ever in our recorded history (United States, 2014 National Climate Assessment). Thankfully however, with the changing weather conditions due to carbon related emissions, the change in public opinion about their personalized influence on climate change is also increasing. Kevin Liptak Jethro Mullen, and Tom Cohen note that In reaction to the most recent governmental report on climate change, even the U.S. government believes that a stronger approach needs to be taken to correct our self-generated cataclysm.
Climate Change is any substantial change in climate that lasts for an extended period of time. One contributor to current climate change is global warming, which is an increase in Earth’s average temperature. Plants and animal species throughout the world are being affected by rising temperatures. Many plants are flowering earlier now than they once did; animals, such as the yellowbellied marmot, are emerging from hibernation earlier; and many bird and butterfly species are migrating north and breeding earlier in the spring than they did a few decades ago, all because of slight changes in temperature cues. (Shuster)
Global warming has become on of the most controversial issues in the media today. While most of the Western world countries have generally accepted the premise that man's chemical emissions in the atmosphere can and are affected by the world’s climate patterns, in the United States, the issue has become so politicized with many republicans challenging the science behind the theory. Global warming is a greenhouse effect whereby gases are trapped on the earth’s surface causing it to heat up (Maslin 14). It is based on the worldwide temperature records that have been maintained by human beings through their activities since the 1880,s. In addition, global warming is not only caused by human activities only but also through climate changes in solar radiance. The problem is that, humans continue to contribute to the global warming phenomenon. All citizens should work in reducing human activities that cause global warming and also support the development of nuclear power. Scientists deem that, global warming is mainly caused by human activities which accelerate the natural process by creating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Human activities have become a great contribution to the greenhouse effect and this means that climate changes are inevitable. They further argue that, if these activities continue and are not reduced, it will lead to more trapping of energy radiated from the earth and this will likely lead to extreme weather and global warming. Global warming should be at reduced levels or else, it will be catastrophic.
According to the Canada’s Action on Climate Change, Climate change is a long-term shift in weather conditions identified by changes in temperature, precipitation, winds, and other indicators. Climate change can involve both changes in average conditions and changes in variability, including, for example, extreme events. Climate change is one of the biggest crisis in the earth. It will cause a huge damage to the eco-system and human. We are the victims of the climate change. However, we are the one who cause the climate change.
The earth is a complex system, which continues to evolve and change. Climate change and global warming are currently popular in the political agenda. But what does “climate” really mean? The difference between weather and climate can be conveyed in a single sentence: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get.” Based on research of the geologic record, we know that climate change has happened throughout Earth's history and at present, ever-increasing evidence points to the roles that humans play in altering Earth systems. The Earth and its atmosphere receive heat energy from the sun; the atmospheric heat budget of the Earth depends on the balance between incoming solar radiation and outgoing radiation from the planet; which has been constant over the last few thousand years. However present evidence seems to suggest that the recent increase in temperature has been brought about by pollution of the atmosphere, in particular the release of huge amounts of carbon dioxide, mostly through Anthropogenic Forcing (human activity) and other various internal and external factors. I...
One of the most substantial problems in the world today is global warming. This gradual warming of the earth is in occurrence at an extremely slow rate but it is happening. Many scientists believe that as human’s work and release greenhouse gases into the earth’s atmosphere, it can become dangerous for the long lasting life of humans and our environment. “Unless we take immediate action, the impacts of global warming will continue to intensify, grow ever more costly and damaging, and increasingly affect the entire planet - including you, your community, and your family” (“Global Warming Impacts”). Everyone should be knowledgeable about global warming and the dangers that it brings to our planet. This essay will examine