A decisive UN climate summit opened yesterday, the 7th of December 2009, at the Danish capital of Copenhagen with representatives of 192 countries of the world participating. Experts consider this the last chance for humanity to find a lasting solution to the threatening problem of Global Warming that can cause mayhem if not controlled with utmost urgency. If we fail to reach a consensus in the present negotiations at Copenhagen, then we are certainly looking down the barrel and the climate change will ruin our planet, together with the millions of animal and plant species.
Due to human activity of the past several centuries, particularly due to the combustion of fossil fuels, the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas, is at a very high and dangerous level. The green house gases are trapping more and more heat in the earth’s surface gradually pushing the heat level of the planet to ominous levels. As a result of increasing heat levels, the average global temperature has risen both in the land and in the oceans. Polar ice is melting, storms and hurricanes are more frequent than before and they are more intense, droughts and floods are more common, sea levels are rising, glaciers are depleting and plants and animals are struggling to adapt to the climate change.
The facts about global warming are clearer than ever before. The world needs to take steps to limit the temperature rise to 2C and any bigger rise to 3-4C would burn the whole planet and turning farmland into deserts. According to NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, the average temperature around the world has risen 0.8 degree Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) since 1880. The rate of warming is also increasing and the last two decades of the 20th century were the hottest in the last 400 years.
The Arctic is facing the most threatening effect of climate change with the average temperature in Alaska, western Canada and eastern Russia rising at twice the global average level. The Arctic ice is fast depleting and the area may have its first ice-free summer as early as 2040. Polar bears and other indigenous species are already reeling under sea-ice loss. Glaciers and mountain snow are fast disappearing and the melting of the Himalayan Glaciers at an alarming rate is threatening to bring drought and famine to about 1.3 billion Asians. The Glaciers of the Himalayas that sweep through India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan bring water to major rivers in these countries. But for the past 30 years, the temperature in this region has risen dramatically by between 0.15C to 0.6C (0.27 and 1.08 degrees Fahrenheit) and this has dramatically affected the glaciers at Himalayas and in turn threatens the level of water in the rivers that derive water from the glacier. Small nations like Maldives, which are surrounded by oceans, are under the threat of getting sunk completely.
The fact that human actions have resulted in global warming is beyond any argument. Industrialised nations are largely responsible for such huge rise in average global temperature and therefore the onus on taking larger steps to counter the phenomenon also lies with them. So it is important for the industrialised nations to cut their carbon emissions. At the same time, developing nations like India can’t cut such emission beyond a certain level as it would adversely affect the socio-economic developmental activities of such nations. Therefore the summit on climate change must find out a just proposition to divide the responsibility of fighting climate change among developed and developing countries. The European Union (EU) and the United States have made commitments on reduction of carbon emission. EU has made a legally binding commitment to cut its emissions by 20 percent on 1990 levels by 2020 and has also said that they would increase that to 30 percent if other countries are committed to “comparable actions”. US President Barrack Obama has proposed to cut its emissions by 4 per cent on 1990 levels by 2020, subjected to approval of the US Congress. China has committed to curb its carbon intensity - a measurement of emissions per unit of GDP - by 40 to 45 percent of 2005 levels by 2020, whereas India has said it will cut emissions 20 to 25 percent by 2020. Developing nations must also make pledges to reduce their carbon emission by meaningful and quantifiable levels.
Climate change affects everyone and therefore it is the responsibility of each and everyone to do something to control global warming. It is imperative for all countries of this world to work together in fighting climate change. Social justice demands that rich countries help the poor countries in effectively fighting climate change by providing financial and technical resources to move on to clean energy technologies so that they can also move towards economic development without growing green house gas emissions. This is the time to act and if we fail this time to reach a consensus on reducing global warming and climate change we would leave behind a calamitous planet and a terrible ecosystem for our children and grandchildren to inherit.
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