Global warming

GLOBAL WARMING

Nowadays, global warming is one of the most well-known problems between countries´ governments. However, most people are not concerned about this dramatic fact. The average global temperature is 0.6 degrees Celsius higher than at the beginning of the 20th century. As a result, this change in temperature becomes the largest rise of any century over the last 1000 years.Furthermore, the year 2000 was the warmest year since 1860 followed by 1998, 1997, 1995, 1990 and 1999 (Morgan, 2003).
Moreover, the scientists believe that the increase in the quantities of greenhouse gases is accompanied by an overall rise in global temperature. These gases trap heat in the atmosphere producing large dangerous concentrations for the Earth, which is responsible of the sharp increasein global temperature. This increase is called global warming.

(Morgan, 2003)

First of all, the Industrial Revolution, which started about 250 years ago, has resulted in a growth in need of fossil fuels. When these fossil fuels are burning, they release carbon dioxide, which is the most common greenhouse gas. In consequence, the concentration of this gas in the atmosphere causes anincrease in global temperatures, which have led to the creation of the following treaty (Morgan, 2003: 14).

The United Nations Frame work Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) was created in 1992, in Rio de Janeiro in order to reduce the global greenhouse gas emissions. Although the treaty was an important event aimed at stopping the increase of temperatures, there were not mandatorylimits on greenhouse gas emissions. In consequence, the treaty was updated and became the current Kyoto protocol, which was adopted by the UNFCCC in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. According to the United Nations Environment Programme ´The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990´ (Wikipedia,2007) The target is to lower overall emissions of six greenhouse gases, which are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, HFCs, and PFCs (Wikipedia, 2007).

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(Wikipedia, 2007)

Besides, the national limitations differ in each of the western countries: ‘from 8% reductions for the European Union, 7% for the US, 6% for Japan, 0% for Russia, and permitted increasesof 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland’ (Wikipedia).
In contrast, China, India, and other developing countries were not included in any numerical limitation of the Kyoto Protocol because they were not the main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions during the industrialization period that caused, according to many scientists, today’s climate change.
However, even if developing countries donot have any commitments to reduce gas emissions, they share the global aim of decreasing pollution (Wikipedia, 2007).

Secondly, the consequences in a climate change will affect human beings, animals, plants and ecosystems, as well as increase natural catastrophes and species extinction. According to the IPPC (International Plan Protection Convention) the temperature increase isoccurring rapidly and the human activities are responsible for the global warming. For instance, the 1990s was the warmest decade and 1998 the warmest year since 1861 when global temperature analyses began. Global sea levels have increased three times faster than the last 3000 years provoking floods in coastal areas; snow cover and the extent of sea-ice in the northern hemisphere will decrease noticeably,and droughts and wildfires will occur more often. In addition, ‘the IPPC has predicted a global temperature rise of 1.4ºC (2.5ºF) to 5.8ºC (10.5ºF) between 1990 and 2100’ (Sally Morgan, 2003: 45).

(Sally Morgan, 2003)

Also, plants and animals will suffer extinction due to the changes in their habitats. They will be forced to move to somewhere else according to their necessities. As a...