 |
|
|
This isn't the first time that we’ve heard it, but it reinforces what scientists have been warning about in recent months more intensely than ever: we are most likely the guilty part in the climate change phenomenon, we are pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere more than ever, and we are responsible for what the climate change will do to our planet.
During the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, climate scientist Christopher Field of the Stanford University had some serious news to deliver: we are producing greenhouse gases three times faster than scientists had predicted in their 2007 assessment.
According to Field, the phenomenon is influenced by the economic growth in quickly developing economies, such as China. However, the United States is still a greater producer of CO2 per capita than China, he also said. Carbon emissions have shown a 3.5% annual growth between 2000 and 2007.
The largest contributor to this effect is the extended use of coal as an energy source, which is indeed cheap, but it is also the largest producer of carbon dioxide emissions.
French climate researcher Anny Cazenave of the Centre National d-Etudes Spatiales in Toulouse also pointed out that sea level is now rising for different reasons than it did few years ago. This no longer has to do with the ocean expanding, but with the melting of glaciers and ice sheets, Cazenave explained.
Scientists have also warned about deforestation in tropical regions, in favor of expanded biofuel crops, such as soy. Deforestation in tropical areas is one of the great contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, since trees are great consumers of carbon during the photosynthesis process.
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore also warned during the AAAS Annual Meeting about the disastrous consequences of climate change and the little time we have to change that:
I believe in my heart that we do have the capacity to make this generation one of those generations that changes the course of humankind. The stakes have never been higher.
© 2007 - 2009 - eFluxMedia
