Climate Change

We all agree (or nearly all of us, there are still enough people who deny the warming effects of CO2) that the world is warming at a faster and potentially very dangerous pace.
The question now is different: How much has the world warmed up already, how much will it warm up with current energy and waste consumption practices and what can we do about the effects? To understand this problem one must look at several things with great importance.

First

The biggest problem is that CO2 doesn’t leave. When you burn some fuels that emit Co2 into the environment they will stay there for a long time, some estimates think it takes a thousand years for the gases to finally escape into the atmosphere. The Earth has its own natural defenses against CO2 as the oceans and forests absorb large volumes but nature cannot cope with the large amounts of man- made Co2  entering the atmosphere so much of it stays trapped.

Secondly

Many scientists believe that a rise of 2 degrees is almost impossible to avoid (especially if we carry on as we are now) and many think that we are on course for a change of at least  4-6 degrees or maybe more. These numbers seem small, but are perhaps sufficient to create changes to the planet not seen in thousands of years. This could mean that the poles disappear – this would mean that the poles do not reflect sunlight back into space and the seas will heat up even more. Also this would mean that the permafrost in Canada and Siberia are going to thaw. This would allow huge amounts of methane to enter the atmosphere, a gas that has much more of a Global warming effect than CO2.

Thirdly

Will governments finally start to react to this problem knowing what the consequences of inaction would mean. You would think so, however it is not quite so simple. Governments, business and households will need to take risks in order to achieve this goal.  The problem is that most governments are concerned on the economy of their countries and if they see that green initiatives could or may affect the bottom line and therefore the welfare of their citizens they do not always promote changes.

Business also act the same way, one simple example, it is known that one simple action such as adding fridge doors on supermarkets would have a massive energy saving effect but many supermarkets maybe worried about doing this as they believe that perhaps certain customers may not like having to open and close the fridge door to get their product and therefore start to shop somewhere else. So it is a vicious circle both for companies and governments, only by all people radically changing their habits and acceptance of greener initiatives we will  be able to change a very scary scenario.