Climate Change and Global Warming

The Earth's climate has always been changing through out its history, with times ranging from Ice Ages to long periods of warmth. Think of the atmosphere as the glass of a greenhouse, letting heat in, but trapping that heat with no outlet. This is what the greenhouse effect is. The sun is earth's only external form of heat. As radiation from the sun travels to Earth, 25% of it is absorbed by the atmosphere and 25% is reflected by the clouds back to space. The remaining travels unobstructed to Earth and heats the plantes surface. If it werent for this process, the planet would be as cold as the Moon. Earth releases a lot of energy it receives, but Earth is much cooler than the sun, so the energy it releases back is much weaker (heat) which gets trapped by the atmosphere causing Earth's temperature to rise. This greenhouse effect has been increasing significantly since the Industrial Revolution ~ 200 years ago. The efects of global warming are the rise in sea levels, melting ice caps, changes in the range and distribution of plants and animals, trees blooming earlier, ice on rivers and lakes freezing later and breaking up earlier, lengthening of growing seasons, and thawing of permafrost.

As Mr Saran said, "the real issue is the greenhouse gases that has been accumulated for the past couple of hundred years that we have to worry about and that the key lies in technology" at the conference in NY, June 25, 2009 (Indian Consulate). (See pictures)

About 10 years ago most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to start on a plan of what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. (source:www.unfccc.com)

**December 2009 - More than 2,700 delegates from 180 countries met for the talks, which are intended to set the stage for the main event: the U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December, where nations are expected to hammer out a successor to the expiring Kyoto Protocol.

Global Warming and Climate Change is not only a matter for the government officials to handle but we as the public need to take an active role in help saving Earth.

Greenhouse gases are emitted as a result of the energy we use by driving and using electricity and through other activities that support our quality of life. These Greenhouse gases can be reduced through simple measures like changing light bulbs in your home and properly inflating your tires to improve your car's fuel economy.

Please visit www.epa.gov and help save the world. (source: www.epa.gov