World Climate Changes

For many years we have been inundated with statistics, research, and information on the ill effects of global warming and greenhouse gases. Scientists agree that world sea and land temperatures have increased over the past century, ("Throw away those bulky winter coats and space heaters, Jeremiah, it's 1º warmer!" ) but they often disagree on the specific causes. Whatever the cause, however, it is clear that these global warming trends threaten human health and the lives and habitats of different plant and animal species. Current scientific evidence shows that warmer oceans mean a decrease in oceanic plant and animal life, and that warmer air temperatures could expand the habitat of various infectious diseases, influence where we are able to live, and impact on where food can be grown. In order to be prepared for these potential effects, we need to know how much the planet is warming, how long it has been warming, and the cause of these warming trends. The answers to these questions will provide us with a basis for making long-term policy decisions about such issues as pollution control, water resource management, and agricultural planning. And no, you can not throw away your space heater yet!

Global warming is believed to be a result of human pollutants that increase the "greenhouse effect", a term that reflects the similarity between the heating of the earth and the workings of a greenhouse. In a greenhouse, solar radiation penetrates the glass covering, but much of the outgoing infrared radiation does not penetrate the glass; it is absorbed and turned into heat. Thus, warmth is trapped beneath the glass dome. As a result, the interior of the greenhouse is warmer than the outdoor temperature. The earth's surface is heated in a similar manner. Our clear atmosphere acts as the glass dome. As the sun's rays pass through the atmosphere, the earth's surface is warmed. The surface emits some infrared radiation back into the atmosphere. Natural "greenhouse gases", such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, and other gases, trap the infrared radiation, creating heat, and warming the lower atmosphere. Under ordinary natural environmental conditions, the greenhouse effect maintains the earth's average temperature at roughly 60°F. Without this natural warming process, the earth's average temperatures would be closer to 0°F.1 While the greenhouse effect is necessary for ecosystem survival, too much global warming over a long period of time is detrimental to life on earth.

As early as 1896, a Swedish chemist named Syante Arrhenius predicted a link between rising atmospheric CO2 and potential climatic temperature increases. More recent studies have proved that since the Industrial Revolution, humans are accountable for higher distributions of many greenhouse gases that absorb heat including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrous oxide (N2O), methane (CH4), and ground-level ozone (O3). Scientists generally agree that the burning of fossil fuels to run automobiles, heat buildings, and power factories has increased levels of various gases. When compared to pre-industrial times, CO2 emissions have increased 30%, methane levels more than doubled, and N2O levels have risen about 15%.2 The increase in these gases has caused the earth's atmosphere to trap and absorb more heat than in previous times.

11:57 AM - Apr. 5, 2005

Water!

Every living creature on this planet is sustained by water. We must have safe drinking water or die. Yet, every 15 seconds, a child under the age of five dies needlessly from a water-related illness. Imagine living your life knowing that your next drink of water could be the one that might kill you? That is how 1.2 billion people (one out of every 6 people) sharing this planet live every day. 2.4 billion (2 out of every 5 people) in our world have no access to adequate sanitation. Poor people – mostly women and children are responsible for collecting buckets of water from the nearest water source, usually the same ones used for bathing and washing clothes, and frequented by the livestock, also.

Uncollected garbage, overflowing latrines and non-functional residential and municipal drainage pipes plague poor people in urban areas. Children play in "latrine streams" filled with disease.

Unimproved, hand-dug wells only serve to spread disease and discomfort in many communities that lack choices, options and a voice in decisions that shape their lives.

Lack of access to one of life’s most essential necessities compromises the livelihoods, the health and the future of impoverished people throughout the world. Without access to clean water, adequate sanitation and health education, no other development goals can be met.

In an era of high-tech superiority, more than half of the people in the developing world are sick from the same cause – water-related diseases.

What actions can we take to address this humanitarian crisis?

11:29 AM - Apr. 4, 2005