谁可以用英文告诉我能源与气候变暖的关系?

谁可以用英文告诉我能源与气候变暖的关系?
谁可以用英文告诉我能源与气候变暖的关系?

谁可以用英文告诉我能源与气候变暖的关系?
Climate Change and Global Warming: The Real Enemies.

Climate Change and Global Warming: The Real Enemies.
Are we getting close to the next Ice Age? Is the planet getting close to a total climate change? Would humans survive these changes? Obviously these are hard questions to answer at the moment, but the truth is that global warming is happening now and climate change will affect life on earth. Different scientists around the world have studied climate change and global warming in order to find an answer to how and why this is happening, but no real answers have been found to these questions. It is believed by some scientists that world climate change is originated as a natural-evolutionary response; however, other scientists have a strong belief that human activities are the major cause of these changes. Governments of different countries and the United Nations (UN) have come together at different conferences in order to find a solution to the global warming problem. Global warming not only affects the human development in the world but also affects government policies related to pollution and environmental protection. Global warming is a fact and not a prediction, as some people want us to believe; therefore, it is important that each country helps to protect our planet because it is the only one we have. Climate change originates from different causes that will result in many effects, which will affect human activities and government policies in each country. Every country is adopting different policies according to their problems and needs; therefore, the UN has created a world policy, which could help to reduce the pollution on the earth. Even though the UN has taken a lead role in setting world policy, individual governments, such as the United States and Venezuela, each have differing opinions and don’t always agree. This lack of concurrence is the primary reason for the lack of progress in moving toward resolution of this very complex issue.
Climate change is problem that affects all life in earth, such changes are being originated by two factors: natural and human causes. It is believed by many scientists that human activities are the major causes of climate change with a responsibility range of 55% or more. “Climate change can also be defined according to human perception. Humans tend to think in terms of shorter time scales, such as years and decades… people might view them [climate changes] as a permanent change in climate and not as variability or fluctuation,”(170) explained by Michael H. Glantz in his article “Climatic Shifts: Omens of Global Warming”. Many scientists believe that climate change is directly related to global warming, which is becoming a dangerous situation that can damage fragile life on earth. Some natural causes are solar motion, variant of earth’s trajectory in a long period of time and volcanic action. “Scientists call them [natural causes] forcing functions because they make the climate system alter its behavior,” (170) says Glantz. Many people believe that climate change is being originated by the activity of sunspots, even though they have different phases of activity where they can be very abundant or just a few. Based on this, we can assume that earth has different faces on climate and the sun, which will cause hotter or colder temperatures, influences it. Therefore, the agricultural activity will be directly affected by this problem. If the earth’s temperature increases, the levels of evaporation will increase too and this will raise rainfall amounts, which can lead to flooding and loss of crops and land. If the earth is far from the sun, the earth will have cold cycles. If the earth is close to the sun, the earth will have warmer cycles. This kind of change is being experienced every year when the earth goes around the sun, but sometimes the earth can experience hotter or colder temperatures than usual. It affects human activities in such ways that humans develop their activities depending on seasons. Seasons are really helpful to agriculture production because farmers can predict rainy seasons, which are necessary to cultivate crops in order to not reduce the production. However, rainy seasons can be altered or affected by different factors and global warming is one of these factors. If the rainy season changes its time and length based on the normality of its cycles, many crops are going to be affected and the land can become too dry for future use. On the other hand, when some places in the world are becoming drier, it is known that other parts of the world are going to have flooding problems. Volcanic activity is another factor that influences climate change and its influence can be for just short period of time. However, a chain of volcanic explosions could have a greater effect in the world climate system for longer periods of time.
Human activities are another and maybe the biggest cause of global warming and climate change. “Human activities have been altering the natural environment for thousands of years,”(171) says Glantz. However, since industrialization began, the environment started to be dramatically impacted by such activities. The main cause of this impact is the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2), which is the major component of greenhouse gases. Industries in general are big consumers of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, which produce large quantities of CO2 when is burned. Not only do industries use such products but also humans find it necessary to use fossil fuels every day. It is true that we need fuel to operate our cars, gas to heat our homes and coal to produce electricity, but all of these activities are affecting the climate on earth. Greenhouse gases are the major cause of global warming. When greenhouse gases are expelled in the atmosphere, they trap long-wave radiation that is re-emitted by the earth’s surface and therefore increasing the earth’s temperature because such radiation cannot leave the earth’s surface. Some examples of greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Not only is the use of fossil fuels causing greenhouse gases but also tropical deforestation is adding to this problem. “Another contribution to the gas buildup comes from tropical deforestation in South America, Southeast Asia, and Central Africa,” (172) says Glantz. Deforestation activity has increased the production of greenhouse gases in a 15%. Trees and vegetation are really important in the balance of the planet because they help to reduce the amounts of carbon dioxide that exists in the air. If trees are cut down, destroyed and burned, they will release the storage of carbon dioxide consumed by the photosynthesis process. Moreover, if there are fewer trees, there will be less reduction of carbon atoms and greenhouse gases from the air. In order to resolve the global warming problem, it is necessary to reduce the production of greenhouse gases, which are causing health issues such as lung problems and skin cancer too. Other factors that affect climate change are increases in population, which brings construction of cities that consume a lot of energy producing unnatural climates, and the wide-scale irrigation of farms, which produce enough evaporation to modify neighboring weather making the atmosphere wetter. “Some researchers have found that a heat island produces more precipitation within a city and downwind from it… because of the effect, some cities are showing a 3 °F warming”(172) says Glantz.
Adapting to climate changes has been one of oldest situations that men have become used to. John and Mary Gribbin explain in their article “Of Frozen Milk and Bison Herds” that men have to deal with climate change since beginning many centuries ago. John and Mary Gribbin explain that different societies in different eras had to deal with strong climate changes, sometimes they were good changes and sometimes they were not. It is explained by the Gribbins that climate change is not something new, but it really affect the human life on earth and their decisions on where to live. “Lamb (a pioneering climatologist who has promoted the idea that climate change influences human affairs) has suggested that the beginning of the end of the little optimum may have been responsible for the emergence of the Mongol hordes out of Asia early in the 13th century” explain the Gribbins. We can see through this article that men have experienced a lot of climate changes and this has influenced their style of life and even their government. The Gribbins explain in their article that the Scottish population had a lot of suffering during the 14th century from the consequences of climate change. Following the constructive weather of the 12th and 13th centuries, which had permitted farming to extend far up the glens, and brought a golden time to the society in the north. The Scotts had to suffer the dryness of the 14th century that provoked crop collapse and starvation and motivated people conflict. “In the 1430s, conditions were so bad that bread was made from the bark of tress, since there was no grain; and civil unrest became so great that in 1436 King James I was murdered while out hunting near Perth” say the Gribbins. After this situation, the court moved away to the fortified city of Edinburgh, which turns out to be Scotland’s capital. Another example of how climate change is affecting the human life is explained in the article “Flooding, Heat Wave, Melting Glaciers Across Europe: Result of Global Warming’ written by Jan M. Olsen and published in CNEWS. This article talks about the problem that Europe has presented in the last couple years. Olsen explains that temperatures are rising in Europe caused by heat waves and this brings as a consequence the melting of glaciers in the Alps and flooding around areas. Some European scientists say that global warming has been present for many years, but in recent years the problem is becoming delicate. “Flooding has killed about 80 people in 11 countries, affected more than 600,000 and caused economic losses equivalent to at least $24 billion Cdn” says Olsen. Olsen, who explains that 20,000 deaths were confirmed during the European wave in 2003 and causes the loss of 30% of the crops too. It has been proven that all this flooding and melting glaciers have raised sea level by 0.8 to 3.0 millimeters in the last century and is prognosticated to increase by 2 to 4 times higher throughout this century. Based on all this effects “the European union has been a leader in pushing for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, a UN pact to combat climate change by reducing carbon dioxide”, says Olsen. We can see how climate changes have influenced in the creation of new policies that the government of those countries has to adopt.
In this case not only have the governments of some countries adopted new policies but also the UN has created new policies in their worldwide conferences on climate changes. One of the most recognized conferences is the Kyoto Protocol, which was realized in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997. “[The Kyoto Protocol] sketched out basic rules, but did not flesh out details of how they would be applied”(4) exposed in the guide “Caring for Climate: A Guide to The Climate Change Convention And The Kyoto Protocol”. It is informed by the Conference of Party (COP), which is the committee in charge of the Kyoto Protocol, that it is necessary to do a separate official procedure of signature and confirmation by countrywide governments in order to enter into power. The objective of the Kyoto Protocol is stabilizing atmospheric absorption of greenhouse gases at a point that would avoid unsafe alteration of the climate system. “Defining what is meant by dangerous involves social and economic considerations as well as scientific judgment,” explained in the Kyoto Protocol guide. The Kyoto Protocol expects that countries that are part of this organization reduce their levels of CO2 production in a 5% in a period of 10 years. Countries that are part of the protocol were divided into different groups such as ANNEX I, which are industrialized countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1992 and countries with economy in transition (EIT), NON-ANNEX I or ANNEX II, which are the OECD nations without including the EIT nations, and LDC, which are the least developed countries that are classified by the UN. For a complete list of countries that are part of the Kyoto Protocol go to the “Caring for Climate Guide” page 13. The requirement for ANNEX I parties is to reduce their production of greenhouse gases and adopt policies that regulate activities, which affect climate change, and ANNEX II parties are required to give economic funds to assist developing countries to fight greenhouse gas production. The COP meets every year to approve resolutions for additional development of the Convention’s rules. There are two institutions that help the COP to obtain valuable information. The Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA), which provides all the information related with science, technology and methodology and The Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI), which provides the help necessary to assess the Convention’s execution and it helps to deal with economic and organizational matters. “Two other bodies, the Global Environment Facility and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change provide services to the Convention” explained in the Kyoto Protocol guide.
Different countries have different reactions and opinions regarding this protocol. For example, the United States of America and the Bush Administration decided that they were not going to be part of this protocol. The Bush Administration believes that global warming is not a problem that should concern them because they insist that there is no such thing as global warming. If the United States decides to be part of the Kyoto Protocol, the energy industry of this country will have a to spend $300 billion in order to meet the reduction of production of greenhouse gases required by the Kyoto Protocol. “Donald Kennedy, editor of the respected journal Science… agrees the administration is politicizing science more than previous administrations,” says William Triplett in his article “Science and Politics”. It is important to mention that President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have extensive professional and personal ties with the energy industry of the United States, which gave a big contribution to the Bush campaign and other republican senators such as Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla. James Inhofe opposes the regulation of the production of greenhouse gases by the federal government because he claims that sound science, which is consistent and demonstrated scientific data, does not support the idea that such gases are provoking global warming. On the other hand, there are some Republican senators that oppose Inhofe’s idea. Senator Chuck Hagel, R-Nebraska, is one of the few leading Republican influencing climate change. “[Hagel] introduced three bills designed to be economic jumper cables that would boost the development of clean-energy technologies” says Amanda Griscom Little in her article “Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel Chats with Grist about Climate Change” published by Grist Magazine. These bills are focused on the exchange of international technology, which must be clean-energy technologies, and the authorization of $4 billion over five years to encourage the national development of non-polluting technologies. “The objective is to address the issue of greenhouse-gas emissions in a realistic and achievable way” explains Hagel. Obviously the Bush Administration’s priority is to expend US money in defense and war. Moreover, they are trying to convince the world that humans are not causing global warming because they know that the US is the biggest polluting country in the world and it will cost the government a lot of money to make changes that will reduce global warming. I wonder what the purpose of spending all that money on a war that is supposed to protect the US citizens from other countries, when in the end we are all slowly killing each other by contaminating the earth. Another country like Venezuela, which is the third largest oil exporter in the world, is agreeable to approve the Kyoto Protocol. “Although Venezuela is an oil exporting country, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions is relatively low, constituting 0.48% of global greenhouse emissions when the United States alone produces 35%” says Ana Elisa Osorio, who is the Minister of the Environment and Natural Resources of Venezuela, in the article “Venezuelan Government Will Ratify the Kyoto Protocol”. Even thought Venezuela is not required by any international act to accept the Kyoto Protocol’s policies, the Venezuelan government is enthusiastic to cooperate. Osorio considers it to be really unsupportive for the United States to reject the Kyoto Protocol. She questions this decision based on the quantities of greenhouse gases that the US produces.
Global warming and climate change are affecting all life on earth and the solution to this problem is in our governments. Humans have suffered for many years because of the climate change, but most recently these changes have occurred dramatically, affecting the economy and life. Many countries have taken the right decision on becoming part of the Kyoto Protocol, but is alarming that the biggest polluting country, the United States, has rejected this convention in which its only idea is to save the planet from melting down. It is obviously unfair that the other 65% of the world, made up of many countries, has to pay the consequences of just one country that is creating 35% of the problem. The United States has always claimed that it wants to save the citizens of the world on every worldwide activity that they are part of, but I wonder why they don’t want to save the world that they are part. I believe that the only answer to this question is that President Bush doesn’t want to expend money on something that his father doesn’t tell him to. I just leave it to everyone’s mind to decide what is the right answer to this problem.