A Brief Introduction to Climate Change and Global Warming

One aspect of being a green business is being aware how much carbon and other greenhouse gases the business emits into the atmosphere. We have all heard the terms global warming, climate change and greenhouse gas but as they are often used interchangeably, it can be difficult to understand exactly what these terms mean. However understanding these terms is important before taking action to reduce emissions from the business. Here is a brief guide to the most common terms:

Global Warming: The phrase global warming refers to an overall warming of the planet based on the average temperature over the entire surface. Global warming has both natural and manmade causes with the main manmade cause being increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. These gases spread around the earth forming a cover trapping solar energy that would normally be radiated into space resulting in increased temperatures.

Climate Change: Although the expressions climate change and global warming are used interchangeably, they do mean different things. The term climate change refers to long term regional changes in climate including temperature, humidity, wind, rainfall and severe weather events. Like global warming, climate change has both natural and manmade causes with the manmade causes of climate change being credited to increased levels of greenhouse gases. Natural causes of climate change include the continental drift, volcanoes and ocean currents.

Greenhouse Gases: These gases are what prevent solar radiation from being discharged to space and are the main cause of both climate change and global warming. Some greenhouse gases such as chlorofluorocarbons are synthetic while others such as carbon and water vapour occur naturally in the environment. While some greenhouse gases occur naturally, human beings have altered the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere through their activities such as burning coal, oil, natural gas and wood.

Air Pollution: Air pollution is a related problem and many of the pollutants responsible for poor air quality and smog are also greenhouse gases contributing to global warming. Discussions about air pollution usually focus on visibility and air quality but reducing emissions that cause air pollution will also reduce greenhouse gas levels.

Ozone Depletion: Ozone depletion is a different but related problem to climate change and global warming. The ozone layer is a gaseous layer in the upper atmosphere that absorbs ultra violet radiation. A reduction in the ozone layer causes more ultra violet radiation to reach earth which can affect crop growth and cause health problems such as skin cancer. Closer to the earth ozone is a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming.

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Whether It's Global Climate Change Or Global Warming, We Still Must Pay Attention

One of the major strategic errors that those concerned about the impact of factors, such as the environment, have had on world weather conditions, is to refer to the situation or threat as Global Warming. In fact, while during the summer and early fall of 2010, the East Coast did experience near-record high temperatures, and Los Angeles, in September set its all-time high temperature, the apparent variation in the normal weather conditions have not merely been warming- type effects. During the winter of 2010, the Washington DC metropolitan area had record amounts of snow fall, while Chicago experienced one of its mildest winter seasons ever.

Warm temperatures have continued on the East Coast throughout the month of September, but so have some other unusual weather conditions. The New York City area experienced a tornado in September 2010, and several states in the North Central states, such as Minnesota, etc., suffered from extensive flooding conditions. It seems to the casual observer that there have been far more weather extremes than one remembers previously. When we have had rains, they have been more extensive. Our snows have had higher accumulations, and where they have accumulated has been unusual. The New York metropolitan area had nearly 40 days with high temperatures over ninety degrees, and there have been very few summers as hot. The Northeast's extremely wet Spring of 2010 was followed by an extremely high and unusually dry summer. The end of September had several extreme and unusual weather conditions, with far higher than usual rains, accompanied by high winds.

Some individuals have stated that these are normal conditions, and the costs of reducing emissions, and cleaning the area, are detrimental to the environment, while not impacting Global Warming. These individuals have used "cold spells" as proof that the "environmentalists" have panicked and distorted the problem. Each side gives conflicting "scientific proof" that they are correct, and neither side has truly proven its point.

However, if improving the environment makes our air healthier, and makes it easier to breathe and enjoy the outside, isn't that enough reason to pay attention? Can "greening" the environment do any harm, and isn't it possible that a reduction of carbon emissions might actually help? Doesn't it make sense to address the issue, just in case?

Very few individuals who objectively have viewed the changes in weather the past few years would deny that there have been changes. There may be multiple reasons for these changes, but doesn't it seem logical that carbon emissions and other environmental factors, may very well be one important factor? Global climate change has definitely arrived, and if the scientists have generally agreed that various toxins released into the environment escaped into the ozone layer, and that there has been evidence of that impact, most individuals without a preconceived notion, bias, or agenda, would agree that we need to do more to preserve our environment. This needs to be done and done sooner rather than later!

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This Year's Crop of Extreme Weather Suggests Climate Change and Global Warming Are Not a Myth

After this summer how can anyone doubt the accumulating evidence that something major and alarming has been happening to global weather patterns?

Unprecedented monsoon weather has put vast areas of Pakistan under water and displaced some 20 million people while mudslides have destroyed whole villages and towns in China. Russia, meanwhile, is one of 16 countries that have declared this summer its hottest ever and is facing the loss of a third of its wheat crop.

A huge piece of ice has broken off from Greenland, while Niger is suffering from famine and once again the loss of its crops.

Is 2010 just one isolated and extreme summer?

Actually it's not if you look back over the last decade and remember from the Tsunami across S Asia in December 2004, the hurricane that destroyed much of New Orleans, major earthquakes in China and Haiti, flooding in the Irrawady Delta, Indonesia, and massive fires in dry weather in Greece and other parts of Europe because of dry, hot summers.

To the British-born environmental campaigner Lewis Pugh, who was recently interviewed by Riz Khan, on the TV Channel Al Jazeera, there's no question that the whole planet is at risk.

This is a man who has swum all the oceans, across the North Pole, where once there was ice, and in the Himalayas to highlight what is going on - and says he has witnessed for himself the changes that are happening in even the remotest parts of the planet, not just once but every time he goes back to these places.

He is in no doubt that the situation is urgent and of such overriding importance that all governments should be putting it at the top of their agendas.

Yet there is pessimism already about the possibility of agreement on action on global warming from November's next climate summit due in Cancun, Mexico.

US chief negotiator Jonathan Pershing is quoted in a BBC online article on August 7 as saying that many developed countries are back-pedalling from the progress that was made at Copenhagen last December.

He, too, warned that the extreme weather and events of this summer were "consistent with the kind of changes we could expect from climate change" and that we need to act quickly.

All this is putting ever greater pressure on our abilities to make progress in producing enough food - at affordable prices - to do something about the scandalous situation in which more than a billion people on the planet suffer from malnutrition if not outright starvation.

Of course, for some, it's all just another opportunity to make money. Speculators on the commodities markets must be rubbing their expensively manicured hands with glee at the fortune to be made in pushing up the price of such basics as wheat. Well, there's no money to be made in sub-prime mortgages any more and investors expect a return on their investment.

There have, however, been a few bright spots in the week's news.

They include an agreement between the US and Brazil that Brazil's £13.5 million of debt will be converted into a fund to protect Brazil's coastal rainforests. Ecuador, too, has announced a scheme to lock up as much as a fifth of its oil reserves if rich nations compensate it with £3.6 billion, half of the oil's value, payable over a ten year period.

If agreed the scheme would protect its Yasuni National Park, one of the most bio-diverse areas of rainforest in the world. The UN Development Programme has agreed to administer the project's trust fund and several EU countries are supporting the idea.

In London Ahmed Djoghlaf, secretary general of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, also spoke out against countries cutting their protection of biodiversity because of the current global economic crisis, warning that destroying nature increases economic insecurity, not to mention countries' ability to produce enough food.

There are plenty of innovative ideas for improving the world's food production, from Genetically Modified crops, through cloning to the Biopesticides Developers' work on producing more environmentally friendly, bio-pesticides, fungicides and yield enhancers to contribute to increasing farm production sustainably without damaging the environment.

The sad thing is that too often governments are still relying on old and arguably discredited methods of pulling their countries out of recession.

While they are, perhaps understandably, focused on the current state of their own economies, if they don't soon change focus to the global situation the question is what, eventually, will they have left to govern?

Emergency Preparedness: What You Need To Do-First-Hand Account   Damages Caused By Australia Flood   Winter Weather Preparedness Tips   Japan Could Sink Into the Deep Blue Sea Tomorrow!   What Is the Difference Between a Weather Watch and a Warning