Global warming – what it is and why we should protest about it.

Most people know that the earth is warming up, it's in the news more and more.

Those who have studied the science and the evidence are becoming convinced that it is a major threat, which could lead to the collapse of our entire civilisation.

What causes it?

We are doing it so rapidly that the proportion of carbon dioxide has risen from 280parts/million (the level for the last 10,000 years at least) to its present value of 380ppm and it's set to double to 560ppm possibly by 2050.
The carbon dioxide acts like a giant duvet around the earth. It lets the heat from the sun in, but impedes the heat escaping out into space. The earth warms up because of this trapped heat.

What is happening now, already.

More energy in the atmosphere means much more violent weather

All this is happening much faster than the scientific predictions.

Predicting what'll happen is difficult. So far there has been a rise in average global temperatures of less than one degreeC. All the scientific predictions have been so far underestimating the problem. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has recently issued a report that it is unable to predict a maximum temperature rise if CO2 levels double. But some estimates put it at 11degreesC

The fear is that once global warming has reached a certain level then it may reach an unstable “tipping point” at which changes will switch on & become more rapid. For example melting permafrost releases trapped methane, which is also a greenhouse gas and adds to the warming.

Another example – if drought kills the Amazon forests, all that carbon will get released into the atmosphere – and we loose a major absorber of CO2 , which those forests do at present.

Ocean currents can be irreversibly altered. Britain could freeze if the Gulf Stream switches off.

What is being done about it?

Much too little. But why?

1. Kyoto Treaty Too timid, targets it sets are much too low. It is also a trading agreement which spreads the cost of global warming without doing anything much to reduce emissions. Also the USA and Australia have not ratified it.
2. Personal life style changes are not enough.
3. Governmental action is needed. Transport policy. Research & development of alternative energy sources, wind, wave, geothermal energy, heat pumps. All this technology is fairly simple, but needs development to make it more efficient and it needs government investment to get it installed in people's houses. Such a policy would actually create jobs and help the economy.
4. Cheap air flights should end. At present aviation fuel is not taxed at all. But the cost of cheap air travel and air freight will turn out to be very expensive in human lives lost through global warming.