What Is Climate Change?

Though some climate change sceptics may still remain on the fringes, the verdict is in, scientific evidence has shown repeatedly that mankind's contribution to global warming is a threat to the sustainability of life on Earth. The question, is it still possible to avoid the worst risks and impacts of climate change? A growing legion of environmentalists, progressive-minded industrialists and other experts think so, if the right action is taken. NOW!

There is a never ending stream of evidence showing that human activities related to private and industrialized carbon dioxide emissions are having a dramatic negative effect on the world's climate. Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, resulting from petroleum, natural gas and coal represent approximately 70% of total human-made greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

Unless immediate action is taken to reduce global warming caused by GHG emissions significant global environmental damage will continue to escalate.

Understanding Greenhouse Gases (GHG)

Many chemical compounds found in the Earth's atmosphere act as "greenhouse gases." These gases allow sunlight to enter the atmosphere freely. When sunlight strikes the Earth's surface, some of it is reflected back towards space as infrared radiation (heat). Greenhouse gases absorb this infrared radiation and traps the heat in the atmosphere. Over time in a perfect world, the amount of energy sent from the sun to the Earth's surface should be about the same as the amount of energy radiated back into space, leaving the temperature of the Earth's surface roughly constant. However, human activities are causing greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere to increase, called the Greenhouse effect.

Many gases exhibit these "greenhouse" properties. Some of them occur in nature (water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide), while others are exclusively human-made like burning fossil fuels. From 1980 to 2000 about three-quarters of human-made carbon dioxide emissions were from burning fossil fuels. Over the past 250 years there is a direct correlation between the increases in carbon dioxide atmospheric concentrations to the increases in human-made carbon dioxide emissions.