Global Climate Change Is One

Global climate change is one of the most important environmental challenges facing the world today. The steady yearly average temperature increases measured by scientists worldwide serve to destroy ozone which in turn pokes significant holes in the earth's ozone layer. Although most of the evidence points to only negative effects of this climate change, some effects are positive too. Regardless, more research must be done and a clear policy must be in place in the forthcoming years for industrialized nations to stymie the spread of poor environmental measures that result in the global warming situation.

The worldwide scientific community has come to an overwhelmingly powerful agreement with regard to the fundamental of Planet Earth's climate change.

The world is - without any question at all - warming, and warming significantly. This warming is primarily caused by the concatenation of carbon dioxide emissions and the release of other greenhouse gases from mankind's deleterious activities including but, of course, not limited to industrial processes, fossil fuel combustion and changes in land use, such as deforestation. No interruption of these disturbing historical trends of greenhouse gas emissions will cause further global warming over the remainder of the 21st century, with current projections of a global increase of 2.5°F to 10.4°F by 2100, with warming in the highly industrialized United States predicted to be much higher. (Pew, 1) "This warming will have real consequences for the United States and the world, for with that warming will also come additional sea-level rise that will gradually inundate coastal areas, changes in precipitation patterns, increased risk of droughts and floods, threats to biodiversity, and a number of potential challenges for public health." (Pew, 1)

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There exists immense worry that human activities are adversely impacting the heat/energy-exchange balance between our planet, the atmosphere and space, and inducing significant global climate change, often termed "global warming." Human activities, especially fossil fuels' burning, have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other so-called "trace" greenhouse gases. If these particular gases continue to pervade the atmosphere at current rates, most researchers feel global warming would occur through intensification of Earth's natural heat-trapping "greenhouse effect." Possible impacts, however, might be seen either as positive or negative.

A hotter climate would most likely have far reaching effects on agriculture and forestry, managed and un-managed ecosystems, including natural habitats, human health, water resources, and the Earth's sea level depending on the climate's actual responses to the global warming. (Justus, 1)

Although correlative synergies between projected long-range global climate trends and record-setting warmth and several severe weather events of the past two decades have not been fully drawn, research has been focused on possible extremes of climate change and the need for more complete and pervasive comprehension of climate processes to better climate model forecasts.

The fundamental policymaking question is: Assuming scientific uncertainties about the magnitude, timing, rate and regional consequences of global climatic change, what can possibly be the appropriate policy reactions for United States and world decision-makers?

Fossil-fuel combustion is essentially the largest source of CO2 emissions, and also emits other so-called "greenhouse" gases. Because the United States economy is so reliant upon energy, and so much of the United States energy supply is derived from fossil fuels, decreasing these emissions poses major obstacles and incredibly partisan controversy.

The United States Congress has carefully reviewed scientific research and associated materials about climate change, and because of this problem's global implications, it has also been addressed internationally through negotiations and exchanges of views and information with international associations (NGOs) within and outside the United Nations system.

The 1992 U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) called for a "non-binding" voluntary aim for industrialized countries to control atmospheric concentrations 0f green-house gases by stabilizing their emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. The 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC goes further and, if it were to enter into force, would commit the 38 major industrialized nations to legally binding emissions reductions.

International negotiations continued in July 2001 to reconcile differing positions of nations and to continue to spell out key details on how the Kyoto Protocol would operate. Following the Bush Administration's rejection of the Kyoto Protocol in March, the United States declined to participate in these negotiations, which ended with agreement among the parties to proceed without the United States. The United States has indicated it would seek new approaches based on voluntary measures and market mechanisms, but has declined to proclaim a timeframe for a new proposal." (Justus, 3)

The policy approach has been intriguing. The fear of global warming from an increase in greenhouse gases has become a major science policy discussion during the past fifteen years. Seeking solutions to a number of questions -- How much warming is there?...How soon will it affect us?...Should we even worry? -- a growing number of lawmakers continue to argue about the advantages and disadvantages of an active government role in creating policies to address prospective climate change. How tangible is the human-created global warming threat? Another ten to fifteen years of continued warming might justify the scientific projections, but many researchers warn that waiting for this added insurance might put the Earth's people at risk for a larger dose of climate change than if actions to curb or slow the buildup of greenhouse gases were implemented now. But actions on what level or scale are necessary?

Lawmakers, here and internationally, are advising cautious courses of action to address the prospect of climate change that many believe is still theoretical and cannot be foreseen with confidence. "Given uncertainties about the timing, pace, and magnitude of global warming projections and the imprecise nature of the regional distribution of possible climate changes, and recognizing the complex feedback mechanisms within the climate system that could mask, mimic, moderate, amplify, or even reverse a greenhouse-gas-induced warming, the question is posed: What policy responses, if any, are indicated, now, or in the future?" (Fletcher, 7)