Climatologists have warned about the dangers of global ‘climate change’ for several years. Their predictions are now a harsh reality with satellite imaging revealing the Arctic and Antarctic icecaps are receding, and sea ice thickness is reducing. These worrying factors are creating a sea level rise that will eventually inundate parts of low lying islands in the world’s oceans and increase the danger of flooding in other vulnerable locations.
Industrialization has contributed greatly to climate change with the burning of fossil fuels to provide electricity to power industrial processes. We also need to fuel our vehicles using hydrocarbons and to heat our homes using solid fuel or gas. Burning so much fossil fuel has caused millions of tons of carbon dioxide to be liberated into the atmosphere, thus accelerating global warming.
This year’s February was the second warmest since records began and the average global temperature has risen by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. Some see this as an advantage; however, what about future generations? Will they inhabit a much warmer world where crop shortages and extreme weather events are the norm, or will the governments of the world start to seriously address the issue of global warming in an attempt to mitigate its effects?
climate change
the changes that are thought to be affecting the world’s weather so that it is becoming warmer
