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Saturday, 12 July 2008 |
The climate of the planet is it being changed? The world is getting warmer?
More detail what that means. We can take into account the period from 1856 to this day. We have reliable temperature records for this recent period. Temperatures were measured with precision in different parts of the world.
 There has been large fluctuations from year to year. At certain times, especially in the years 1940, global temperature has dropped, but the general trend seems to be higher if one considers the last 150 years.
And if we consider a longer period, for example, 1 000 years? We are then faced with a problem, because we do not have any reliable recording temperatures earlier in the mid-19th century. However, it is possible to estimate the temperature from other information, such as the size of growth rings on trees and composition of ice taken from Antarctica and Greenland. The data used for indirect measures of temperature are called "proxy data". (Read more about the estimation of temperatures from proxy data.
Temperature of the planet
The global average temperature has increased over the past 150 years. This chart was prepared by comparison with the period from 1961 to 1990. She is represented by the horizontal line to 0. The anomalies or variations compared to the average, are given for each year.
The global average temperature for a given year is indicated by a blue or red. For example, the year 1900 was cooler by 0.2 ° C above the 1961-1990 average. The hottest year here was 1998, hotter almost 0.6 ° C above the 1961-1990 average.
The thick blue line and red indicates the average global temperature for periods of five years. For example, the average temperature for 1998-2002, focusing on 2000, was higher by 0.4 ° C above the 1961-1990 average. The period from 1958 to 1962, focusing on 1960, corresponded exactly to the average.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 12 July 2008 )
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
The certainty of climate change is based on the work and statements of scientific reality, the extent, nature of the phenomenon. The base is "serious" and strongly supported. Researchers who work in this area are now very listened to and have a world body, the IPCC, which calls for the implementation of public policies to limit the emission of greenhouse gases. Thus, the results of the recent study by ADEME on the perception of the greenhouse effect show a rising awareness of the phenomenon in society. We must also realize that benchmarks and scales benchmark space have moved. Thus, everyone can "see" the physical world as a whole thanks to satellite imagery and view daily weather phenomena on his television screen. But what perception people have of this phenomenon on a daily basis? First, any natural phenomenon deviating a little of the "normal" is attributed by the media to climate change, and this as a matter of course, without attention to any other factor "normal". Furthermore, what we promised, that is a future disasters . While the ideologies of the 20th century and advances in science promise "of future singing", where it would be possible to "shave gratis" Today, we announced pell-mell, floods and droughts, coastal areas inundated, displacement, destruction of infrastructure, etc.. Our environment, our economy and our companies will be permanently affected. Not only a "change" but a "revolution".
Climate change would be accompanied therefore a "disorder". But that would mean that weather conditions have been stable in the past, and now that the rule would be the occurrence of extreme events. Certainly not, because it settles forget that before this he was already aware mentioned among older people the time of past years, with "seasons marked", "real" winters and "true" summers, evocation accompanied by the popular expression: "There are no more season! ". |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
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These gases - beneficial in normal times because they temper the climate and enable the development of life - are concentrated at a level never seen before. Nitrous oxide (N2O), issued a few vehicles using diesel and coal plants and natural gas, methane (CH4), generated by massive defections of livestock and by bacteria plantations of rice, and carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by internal combustion engines and used in fire extinguishers or refrigeration have reached unprecedented levels.
In general terms, just over 70% of emissions of greenhouse gases in the region come from four countries: Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina. If one also takes into account those of Colombia and Peru, the percentage rises to 83%. Emissions from island countries in the Caribbean and Central America are significantly lower.
Even if the contribution of greenhouse gases in Latin America and the Caribbean is low, "the potential impacts of future climate and changes in land use could be costly to the region," said the report of UNEP.
Zones forest decline
One of these changes, dramatic, is deforestation. Antonio Brack Egg, a famous Peruvian ecologist, said that Latin America and the Caribbean have lost between 1990 and 2000, 47 million hectares. Each year, the region loses 3 million hectares, he adds.
A document of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), made public in the Dominican Republic in June 2006, gives figures confirm the assertion heinous Black .
The text says that during the last five years, the forest zone in the region fell by over 4.5 million hectares per year, which puts Latin America and the Caribbean topped the deforestation level World.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
The rise in food prices was partly caused by measures against climate change, as well as rising energy prices. That is why the United Nations discussions on the topic which started in Germany this week could be controversial with the critics.
Discussions on climate change organized by the United Nations began Monday in Germany, experts seeking to develop a new global pact on climate change. But these discussions are facing a new challenge by critics who say that measures to fight against climate change are partly responsible for the rising prices of food and energy.
The meeting is the second of its kind that seeks to develop a global pact on climate change by the end of 2009, pact to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012. The discussions in Bonn in Germany focus on the "toolbox" of measures that could reduce the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Thursday, 03 July 2008 |
The United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Jacques Diouf has sounded the alarm Tuesday at the Conference of the Research Foundation MS Swaminathan in Chennai, India, announcing the next crisis in food production in developing countries due to climate change, return a joint FAO. Climate change likely to affect food production in the developing world, while industrialized countries could register gains in production, "said Jacques Diouf. The yield potential is likely to increase at higher latitudes, according to culture, when average increase of global temperature from 1 to 3 ° C. The lower latitudes, especially in tropical regions to seasonal droughts, it probably will decline, including in the presence of small increases in temperature, which would accentuate the risk of hunger. The increased frequency of droughts and floods would have a negative impact on local production, especially in subsistence sectors at low latitude, "said Jacques Diouf. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 03 July 2008 )
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Climate Change 
