Climate Change
Changes to the Earth’s climate is a
natural evolutionary progression,
which normally is so slow that the
changes are not witnessed during any
one generation, and allows for both
organic and plant life to adapt.
Since the Earth was created in excess of
four billion years ago, many changes
have evolved including the creation of
continents such as the British Isles,
which by the Earth’s lifeline is very
young, at an estimated 500 million
years old.
The British isles, as with any land mass,
has also seen large changes, first
breaking away from the tropics as
rainforest, which over time died away
and fossilised, forming some of the
problems fuels of today, Coal and Oil.
The problem that is now being
experienced, is the speed of the
climate change due to human
lifestyles.
The Earth’s surface has increased in
temperature by approximately 30
degrees since the last ice age, a period
of approximately 10,000 years, and
more significantly could possibly
increase by 7 or 8 degrees over the next
one hundred years if nothing is done to
reduce the generation of greenhouse
gasses, which include Carbon Dioxide
(CO²), Methane (CH4), Nitrous Oxide
(N2O), Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC), and
Water Vapours.
|
So what is happening?
If we were to adopt the USA stance and
do nothing, the Earth would heat up by
the seven or eight degrees that it is
being forecasted. The polar caps would
melt at an increasing speed and sea
levels would rise, resulting in the
disappearance of the low level land,
These changes are already being
witnessed with flash flooding being
experienced around the globe, as seen
in 2004 when Boscastle in Cornwall
was dramatically put into the
limelight, and more recently when
hurricane Katrina devastate New
Orleans.
In contrast areas of the world are not
getting their expected rainfall levels,
and with the rising temperature it is
triggering an increase of forest fires
throughout many parts of the world.
France, Australia & America are all
experiencing an increase in such forest
fires.
Furthermore, raising the sea
temperature just a few more degrees,
would see the Methane stocks buried
far down in the cold depths of the sea,
warm enough to bring them to the
surface, releasing vast amounts of
Greenhouse gasses into the
atmosphere.
This would start a chain reaction
which would prove lethal and
irreversible for all organic life.
|
