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| Tuesday, 28 December 2004 |
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Global warming and environment by Dilena Pathragoda, Coordinator, Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) Global warming is now becoming most controversial word in our environmental dictionary. It is an environmental damage which is causing great anxiety to mankind, because the blanket of greenhouse gases is becoming thicker due to the assimilation of the CO2 gas in the atmosphere. This will cause the warming of the earth's surface due to increase of the global temperature. It is increasing continuously day by day. According to the Snate Arrhenius, a Swedish scientist observed the fact in 1896 that the increasing amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere by coal-fired industries, would cause global warming. But at that time it was not very serious situation in the world. After understanding of this dangerous situation, in 1988 a panel was set up by UN General Assembly named Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to advise world leaders on global warming. In June 1997 the panel reported, "The balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate." Scientists are concerned that if there is an increase in these gases, especially CO2 earth's atmosphere could warm up to dangerous degree as more heat is trapped on the earth's surface. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution in Britain ushered in rapid industrialization that greatly increased a man's assault on ecology. There are number of international Environmental Conventions for protecting the environment. On this point the predictions about global warming led by United States and more than 160 other countries to sign in 1992, the first binding agreement dealing directly with climate changes. The UN Framework Convention signatory governments agreed on a voluntary basis, to reduce the greenhouse emissions to the 1990 levels by the year 2000. In 1997, the government representatives signed a Global Glimate Change Treaty in Kyoto, Japan, to reverse the rise in greenhouse emissions from human activities which would eventually check the temperature increase. All these agreements are most important to prevent all environmental damages which were done by human beings. Reducing emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases would not only mean burning less fossil fuel, but also curbing deforestation, a process that adds to the excess CO2 by destroying trees which absorb the gas. CO2 is also released when wood is burned. But according to some, such steps threaten to undermine the economic growth and even destroy entire industries if undertaken too quickly. Moreover, planting rice emits methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases. Raising cattle is also one of the causes of global warming. Therefore we have to be responsible for understanding what are the environmental harmful activities or not. All the developed countries and developing countries should be very careful in this issue. Because we are expecting the "Development" but not destroy our valuable "Environment". USA and China are the two major countries contributing to global warming. United States is 85 percent dependent on fossil fuel which is vital for the manufacturing process. China is going to equal all the world's emissions in the next 20 years. However, the efforts are only in bits and pieces as more than 90 percent of population is not aware of global warming. The afforestation process i.e. planting of trees is one of the activities by the government in the right direction, but even then a lot is left desired. A few scientists have proposed cheaper strategies to reduce CO2 in the atmosphere, such as iron-seeding in the key ocean regions. Microscopic plants in the ocean called phyton-plankton currently absorb over 30 percent of CO2 produced by burning of fossil. The water level of sea is currently rising at approximately 0.25 cm each year. The extra water comes from melting glaciers and ice sheets due to global warming. In the next five decades, scientists warn, the sea levels might rise by about 30cms rather than at present level. This could have a major impact on the erosion and other impact of the environment. Most of small Islands will be vanished due to the increasing of sea level. As a result of this situation some people should be removed from their own Islands and resettled in other countries. |
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