Climate Change - Intro Notes - Back to Index

Intro

2004-05-20

The greenhouse effect is what limits the amount of heat radiated into space by the Earth. It is caused by "greenhouse gasses" in the atmosphere which include carbon dioxide. Due to deforestation and the burning of fossil fuel the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere has been increasing rapidly since the start of the industrial revolution, leading to an increase in tropospheric temperatures. This global warming is thought to be responsible for melting of arctic and antarctic ice sheets, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns. Many scientists believe that this human influenced climate change will continue to accelerate and could become catastrophic.

Although it would seem prudent to take action to mitigate a potential disaster there are powerful vested interests at work opposing such measures. This opposition includes the lobbying of governments to dissuade them from introducing effective legislation and the funding of organisations which attempt to spread doubt about the true nature of the problem.

On 2004-04-07 my application to edit the DMOZ category Society/Issues/Environment/Climate Change/Activism was approved.

www.zenatode.org.uk Ian Gregory 2010