Climate change does not only mean abnormal increases in temperature, but it does mean disturbance of whole climate systems which many species have evolved to adapt to for millennia. It will indiscriminately affect everyone and everything on earth, and the impacts will be enormous and last for over 1,000 years (Matthews & Caldeira, 2008; Montenegro, Brovkin, Eby, Archer, & Weaver, 2007; Solomon, Plattner, Knutti, & Friedlingstein, 2009). The time has come to worry about survival of human civilization. Global efforts to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change are underway, but it is difficult to see many positive signs that these efforts are making a real difference (Anderson & Bows, 2008, p. 17). Is there any hope that we can succeed in mitigating climate change?
References Cited
Anderson, K., & Bows, A. (2008). Reframing the climate change challenge in light of post-2000 emission trends. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 1-20.
Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). (n.d.). Global temperature anomalies. Retrieved December 12, 2009, from http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/tabledata/GLB.Ts.txt.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: synthesis report. Fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Matthews, H. D., & Caldeira, K. (2008). Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions. Geophysical Research Letter, 35, 1-5.
Montenegro, A., Brovkin, V., Eby, M., Archer, D., & Weaver, A. J. (2007). Long term fate of anthropogenic carbon. Geophysical Research Letter, 34, 1-5.
Solomon, S., Plattner, G., Knutti, R., & Friedlingstein, P. (2009). Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions. PNAS, 106(6), 1704-1709.
*This series of posts is excerpted from my dissertation. I hope these posts help my visitors understand this critical matter better.*
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