Climate Change
What Climate Change is, how it will affect us and what we can do to avoid it.
It has now been accepted beyond any doubt that human activity on the planet Earth has accelerated a warming trend in the Earth's atmosphere. According to present scientific data, this ‘Global Warming’ could increase the mean average temperature by as much as 5 degrees Celsius during the next hundred years, causing catastrophic climatic changes to occur.
Throughout the history of our planet, there have been constant changes in climate, which have happened over thousands or even millions of years, and have therefore allowed both animals and plants plenty of time to adapt to the new situation. The changes that are expected during the 21st century, however, will be so rapid that many species may be lost, being unable to cope with such a radical difference in their living conditions.
The most obvious effect of such a temperature increase is the melting of the polar ice caps and the subsequent rise in sea level, causing devastating floods and great loss of life world-wide. Also, as the glaciers and ice fields decline, exposing more rocks, trees and other vegetation, this will lead to the absorption of even more heat from the sun. Warmer oceans absorb less carbon dioxide and melting ‘tundra’ regions will release vast quantities of methane gas, further increasing the ‘greenhouse effect’, until a state may be reached when the warming of the earth’s atmosphere simply gets ‘out of control’ as temperatures rise exponentially in an upward spiral.
Carbon dioxide emissions generated from burning Fossil Fuels are responsible for 60% of the increase in heat trapping or 'greenhouse' gases which have risen by over 30% during the last 200 years or so, since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The latest data collection methods suggest that this level has not been exceeded for the last 650,000 years and probably not during the past 20 million years! The website breathingearth.net simulates the present carbon dioxide emissions of every country in the world, together with their current populations and birth/death rates.
By now, most of us are aware that pollution from factories, power stations, motor cars and the burning of forests are the main causes of 'Global Warming'. But how many of us are ready and willing to do something positive and avoid that worse case scenario, even though it poses the single greatest threat to our future existence on the planet? We have the technology, or so it seems, but do we have the willpower to make those necessary changes in time and avoid disaster?
Believe it or not, the solutions are not so complicated or impossible to apply to our daily lives, and since we are all going to be directly affected by the result, it is definitely in our interest to participate as much as we possibly can.
It’s all about using less of everything, saving energy, buying locally produced food, recycling our waste, reducing travel, planting trees, investing in ethical businesses and lobbying politicians to act before it really is too late.
It’s the only planet we have and we can all make a difference!
Chris Dews, President – Ibiza Eco Logic
