Global warming is perhaps the greatest environmental challenge of our time. Our emissions of greenhouse gases are increasing the Earth’s temperature, especially in the Arctic. This can have tremendous consequences for both people and animals all over the world.
The global mean temperature has increased by 0.74 degrees Celsius since 1906. In the Arctic, temperatures have increased almost twice as much. Climate scientists in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) conclude in the latest report from 2007 that it is very likely that most of the warming over the last fifty years is attributable to human emissions of greenhouse gases and deforestation. If emissions continue to increase, temperatures can rise between 1 and 6 degrees Celsius over the next hundred years.
Global warming can have major consequences for our planet. General changes include increased precipitation in areas that already had a lot of rain from before, and less precipitation in areas that were already dry. This means that flooding and drought periods will become more common. According to the IPCC, the sea level can rise between 19 and 58 cm over the next hundred years, both because glaciers are melting and because water expands as it gets warmer. This will cause low-lying land regions to lose large areas of land, and coastal zones will become more vulnerable to storms.
Today, we meet about 80 percent of our energy needs through fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas. Emissions of the greenhouse gas CO2 from these sources is increasing rapidly. To prevent harmful climate change, emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced between 50 and 80 percent over the next 50 years. For this to happen, everyone has to pitch in and politicians from every country must pave the way so that we can all make climate-friendly choices in our everyday lives.
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