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Climate Change - an introduction and some
definitions |
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Climate change is often colloquially referred to
as “global warming”. It is thought by many to be perhaps the
gravest environmental challenge confronting humankind, with
the potential to create relatively soon an environment
inhospitable to mankind and within our lifetimes to cause
floods, more severe storms, famine, increased landslides,
sea-level rise, damage to property and even to create
environmental refugees, amongst other things.
Climate
Change has always occurred, but CDM and the UNFCCC/Kyoto
Protocol are aimed at limiting the extent to which mankind’s
activities accelerate or prompt climate change.
Mankind-induced climate change is referred to as
“anthropogenic climate change”. Today a consensus amongst
scientists is growing that mankind, through the emissions of
greenhouse gases is enhancing the Earth's natural greenhouse
effect , leading to a warmer globe and less stable climate.
Some natural systems like forests diminish the
build-up of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide by taking up
these gases in the growing process. Such systems are called
“sinks” and act as a natural brake to the build-up of
greenhouse-gases. From the end of the last ice age about 7 000
to 10 000 years ago up to the mid-eighteenth century, the
levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere remained fairly
constant. Since the Industrial Revolution, concentrations of
most of the major greenhouse gases have increased, to a
greater or lesser extent. The emissions are now outstripping
the ability of natural systems (sinks) to take up/sequester
the gases. Consequently, atmospheric concentrations of
greenhouse gases over the last two hundred years have risen.
The nations of the earth did not contribute equally to
this build-up. The industrialised countries were generally
responsible for greater emissions both in absolute and in per
capita terms. This happened primarily through their use of
cheap, fossil fuel-based energy , still generally the least
expensive energy today. The Kyoto Protocol is based on the
realisation that the industrialised nations are richer than
the developing countries and became so at least partially
through the availability and use of cheap, fossil fuel-based
energy. The industrialised nations thus bear a greater
historical responsibility for anthropogenic climate change and
consequently (at least initially) also a greater
responsibility for limiting emissions. This recognition forms
the moral and practical backbone of the CDM.
For a
brief history of abatement efforts, use the menu at the left
bottom of the page
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