Sustainable Development and Climate Change

By Steve Nicholls

The last few years saw many natural disasters and most are still afresh in our memories. One very good example to site is Haiti crisis. Did you know, the last few years have been registered as the most warm years? Ice Age, though an animated movie actually addresses a real problem! Ice from the poles, Arctic and Antarctic regions is melting at an alarming pace – 9% per year! There’s a hole in the Ozone layer that’s contributing to increase in temperatures considerably. Why all these adverse issues? The only reason for this drastic climate change is our lifestyle, which is against nature.

Earth has it’s own powerful rejuvenation and cleansing mechanisms. Human beings inhale oxygen and exhale carbon-dioxide, while plants vice-versa. So this automatically prevents excess carbon accumulation in the atmosphere. Now, with rising population, industries and modernization, plants and tress are disappearing. This means, more carbon-dioxide will be accumulated.

Gone are the days where men traveled by foot or vehicles operated manually. The current generation uses highly sophisticated vehicles and they contribute more to air pollution. The vehicles use fuel and releases carbon-monoxide in the atmosphere. It’s deadlier than carbon-dioxide and further worsens the already troubled ozone layer.

Today, our houses are lit with electricity and we use many gadgets to automate most work. All these will need electricity, which means more fossil fuel is used. Not only that, electricity consumption means – you throw out more carbon. Thus, the list is endless with contributions we make for destructing our environment.

In due course, pollution and environment degradation has taken a serious toll and not grown to the heights of threatening life in the near future. Understanding the seriousness of the issue, world countries met and came-up with a viable solution to tackle the issue. This project is called Millennium Project.

The problem with arresting the climate change and sustaining the same, is economically challenging. Most alternative options suggested, will involve more spending. This is a problem, cause one-sixth of the world’s population is poor. Though they suffer the most, they can’t really make changes not did they contribute to worsening it! The problem is attribute to industrialization, deforestation and modernization, while the poor don’t really have a role to play here!

However, irrespective of who or what contributes to the problem – it’s a global issue and should be handled by the world as a whole. Did you know, few changes can make a huge difference and yet can be simple? Not many really know that switching to Eco-friendly bulbs can help the environment and also help them due to reduced power requirement.

According to the Millennium Project, by 2015 poverty should be reversed to tackle the issues the globe is confronted with. As part of the project, developed countries are to donate for poorer countries towards equipping them to face the issues and handle them effectively. Thus measure are taken to educate them and improve the infrastructure and thus indirectly solve most issues.

Though scientists agree the fact that, our lifestyle and modernization has contributed to climatic change, it’s still a challenge to completely reverse the effects. The only possibility to take concrete measures now, to not only reduce the risks involved, but also to ensure the future generations are not put into more risk. It’s estimated that by 2030, the effects will be more if solid measure to curb carbon emissions are not taken.

It’s the duty of every individual to do their bit to the environment and sustain it for the future generations. We should take care not to make it impossible for our kids to make their ends meet! Understanding the cause of climate changes, global warming and the measure to be taken is the first step. Stay informed, take the right decisions and save the environment.

About the Writer
Over the last 30 years I have worked with over 50 organisations, such as British Telecom (Global Telecoms), Inmarsat (Global satellite operator), Ciena Corporation (Global optical networking manufacturer), Bovis (Global Construction), John Laign (International Construction and Facilites ), NSPCC (a National Children’s Charity) to name a few.

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Ways to Solve Climate Change

By Harold Forbes

Anthropogenic Global Warming and the resultant climate change is a real, if difficult, issue for humans. For the first time our understanding of the science of the world and ability to generate knowledge is producing not fun and exciting things like parachutes, airplanes, space rockets, consumer electronics or smart cars, it is telling us that we are on a head long course of destruction not only of industrial civilisation but possibly of life itself. Fixing the problem strikes right to the very heart of what it is to be human: how we relate as individuals to others in society, how we relate as one generation to the next.

Across the globe, most people agree that climate change is a problem: a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found levels of agreement of this ranging from 75% in the US to a near unanimous 97% in Japan. What is much more difficult is to get agreement on what can be done to solve the problem. This has been amply demonstrated at an international level where nearly twenty years of negotiation has not managed to produce much beyond an agreement of intentions. In fact, some people find it very difficult to imagine there might be any form of solution: after all, they argue, if burning fossil fuels is the main source of the problem and modern civilisation is dependent upon the energy released by them, how can we possibly give up burning them?

One of the odd characteristics of the human mind is that it finds it difficult to imagine that situations may be substantially different to how they are today and that, once knowledge is gained, it cannot go away. As late as the 1930′s people thought that it was impossible for a space rocket to break free from the Earth’s gravity while the so-called Dark Ages of history were characterized by a loss of knowledge and understanding of the physical and theoretical world. Our world is one of constant surprises and changing conditions.

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The Dangers Of Deforestation

By Sebanti Ghosh

Forests have a huge impact on the environment. The trees help in balancing the oxygen-carbon dioxide balance of the earth, by absorbing carbon dioxide from the environment and releasing oxygen. Forests regulate temperature of the Earth and rainfall, and thus prevent droughts. The trees impede the velocity of runoff on the soil surface. This thwarts soil erosion and landslides, thereby reducing possibilities of floods. The leaves that fall on the forest ground act as nutrient sources that increase soil fertility. The forests also offer shelter against adverse environmental conditions to diverse forms of wildlife. Moreover, forests are significant not just ecologically but economically as well. Firewood, commercial timbre, gums, raisins, medicines, and other products of industrial use are obtained from forests.

Over-exploitation of forests by humans has been continuing unabated through centuries. Increased urbanization has resulted in mass deforestation. Indiscriminate felling of trees for converting forest-lands into agricultural fields, for industrialization or mining, and overgrazing by domestic animals are all contributing to the loss of this exhaustible natural resource. Diverse forest ecosystems are being converted into high yielding mono-cultural tree plantations.

The lush green rainforests used to cover 14% of the surface of the Earth. Now this value has dwindled to only about 6%. It is anticipated that the remaining rainforests could disappear within the next fifty years.

The consequence is loss of biodiversity. Many species of plants and animals are already extinct. Others are also fading away, due to loss of habitat. Apart from the loss of genetic resources, this also entails loss of essential medicinal herbs and even several aboriginal tribes. Other major impacts include soil erosion, flooding, and desertization.

Perhaps the most severe outcome is global warming due to the greenhouse effect. Increased deforestation has led to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, like carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and chlorofluorocarbon. This is heating up the atmosphere and the temperature of the world is rising. The resultant climate change would affect crop, animal and forest growth. Sea-levels will rise causing devastating floods, and at the same time severe droughts would occur frequently. Agriculture and aquaculture both will suffer. If timely steps are not taken to prevent this, the entire human race will be endangered

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