Global perspectives

Global Perspectives

Portfolio

Delfina Camilión

2010

Marylin Baucero

Climate Change

The world’s climate is dynamic and is always changing through a natural cycle. But nowadays, these changes are happening quicker as a consequence of human’s activities, and that carries other consequences with it, which affect directly our environment and ourselves. But not all the world or allthe countries are affected at the same time, or in the same way. What I am going to do in this research is to state the main climate problems around the whole world, with its causes and consequences. After that I am going to research about the climate changes in my country and finally in my community, thinking about possible solutions.

Climate change around the world:

The World MeteorologicalOrganization and the United Nations Environment Programme reports that the average surface temperature of the earth has increased during the twentieth century by about 0.6° ± 0.2°C. This tells us that the world’s temperature is warmer than in any time during the past 1000 years. This is a very important problem which brings many consequences and affects the environment, animals and people. Thecauses for these can be divided in two, the natural causes and those that are created by man’s activities. Within the natural causes, the most important are:
• The continental drift
• Volcanoes
• The earth’s tilt
• Ocean current
Within the human’s causes we have:
• Greenhouse gases and their sources
• Carbon dioxide cycle
• Deforestation
• Industries gases and wastes
All of us inour everyday lives contribute to this change, some examples of this are:
• The use of electricity
• Car, buses and tracks, they all run on fossil fuels.
• Our generation of waste
• The use of timber, which is made of trees

These are some of the main causes of this terrible climate change. And this change has its consequences. These consequences are: earthquakes, flooding, tsunamis,volcanoes eruptions, melting of ice plates, damage on the agriculture, etc. All these consequences affects directly humans, many times putting in danger our lives.
Some of the most important climate change consequences around the world during the last years were: the tsunami in Indonesia, the earthquake in Haiti ,in Chile and in China, the hurricane Katrina in the United States . I am able to nameall these tragedies because they happened during my life, and what I can say from what I saw and heard in television, is that they were horrible situations which took millions of people’s lives, ruined many families, communities, countries and their economic situations. They are catastrophic situations which produces chaos, deaths, sadness and impotence. And many of these situations were caused byus, by our activities.

Africa
Some regions are likely to experience water shortages. Coupled with increasing demand, this is likely to result in large increases in the number of people at risk of water scarcity. It is likely to affect livelihoods, the report by the International Panel on Climate Change says.
Projected reductions in the area suitable for growing crops, and in the length of thegrowing season, are likely to produce an increased risk of hunger. In some countries, yields from rain-fed agriculture could be reduced by up to 50% by 2020.
Rising sea levels threaten large cities. Degradation of coral reefs and mangroves is likely, with impacts on local fisheries and tourism.
Rising temperatures, coupled with over-fishing, will decrease the supply of fish from large lakes,with important impacts on food supplies.

Asia
Glacier melting in the Himalayas is virtually certain to disrupt water supplies within the next 20 to 30 years. Floods and rock avalanches are virtually certain to increase. Heavily-populated coastal regions, including the deltas of rivers such as the Ganges and Mekong, are likely to be at risk of increased flooding.
Economic development is likely...