Climate change
Climate change
Climate change is become the main environmental issue of the XXI century; it is judged as unequivocal by the scientific community, which considers as really likely that the Earth will have to face climate changes very dangerous for people and ecosystems. Human perturbation occurs not only with emissions by fossil fuel combustion and cement production, but reducing natural “absorptions”, that is due to the deforestation; in fact the forest ecosystems absorb CO2 carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, during the photosynthesis.
Carbon cycle
Carbon is a fundamental element of our planet. Not only it is present in the ocean, air and rock, but also all living things are made of carbon. In our environment carbon is neither fixed nor stable, but instead moves between the Earth’s spheres. In the atmosphere, carbon exists in the oxidized form of CO2, carbon dioxide.
On the global scale, forests, wetlands and oceans are important carbon sinks, since they are considered the key eco-systems for climate regulation. In this context, forests are particularly key eco-systems that act as a long-term carbon sinks. As the trees grow, the forests bind carbon in the form of below- and above-ground biomass, imprisoning the absorbed carbon in the wood for decades.
Global warming
Since 1880, the average global temperature has increased about 0.9°C. The decadal average temperature over European land areas increased by approximately 1.3°C between pre-industrial times and the decade 2002-2011, more than the global planet average .
Consequences:
Climate change - what can we do: mitigation and adaptation
Mitigation means to avoid the unmanageable such as making changes into energy use and production,
using energy more efficiently, promoting renewable energy and innovative technologies, stop deforestation.
Adaptation means managing the unavoidable such as minimizing damages due to climate change. It consists in actions of prevention regarding the different organization of territory and communities (change in techniques of buildings and infrastructures, farming and irrigation) but also in rescue and civil protection actions.
The case of Kiribati islands
Due to their location and geomorphological characteristics, Pacific islands are among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change. Remote and surrounded by the ocean, with small surface areas and low altitudes, these islands are at risk from both rapid-onset natural hazards, such as tsunamis, cyclones, typhoons and flooding, and slow-onset, such as soil erosion, droughts, coral bleaching, and salinization of soil and water. During the last decades, meteorological data proves that the Pacific climate has changed. The increase in temperature and intensity of cyclones and typhoons, the shifts in rainfall patterns and the rising sea level threaten the existence of many islands.
The Republic of Kiribati, comprising three main island groups with 33 scattered atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island, is a perfect example. Kiribati’s economy depends mainly on its marine resources while the limited land resources and terrestrial biodiversity are also critical for the livelihood of local people. The islands of Kiribati could disappear within the next 30 to 60 years. Some of the atolls could be completely submerged underwater or become uninhabitable because of salination. In 2013 a Kiribati man, Ioane Teitiota, claimed the status of climate change refugee under the Convention of Geneva (1951), referring to the part that regulates the Status of Refugees. Teitiota and his family arrived in New Zealand from Kiribati in 2007. After the expiration of their permits, they remained in the country illegally. After being arrested, they applied for refugee or protected person status. The New Zealand High Court rejected Teitiota’s claim.
Environmental refugee
In 1976 the term environmental refugee was used for the first time: it describes people who move due to the degradation of their environment, which can be linked to climate change (even to the point that there can be no return, as in the case with rising sea levels in small island states or low coastal areas). There are resemblances with people escaping war and persecution, but while war refugees can at least hope to return home someday, environmental refugees can never return home. Lastly, the most fateful distinction: while the war refugees are protected by the Geneva Convention, the environmental refugees enjoy no such legal protection.
Impacts of climate change
Climate change is affecting all countries, in all parts of the globe. But its impacts are distributed differently among regions, generations, age classes, income groups, occupations and genders. Poor women and men in rural areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America are especially vulnerable, since their livelihoods often depend on the resources of the environment they live in.
Women in particular are most affected by Climate Change, since they lack the tools to adapt, mitigate and react to environmental changes. In fact, the majority of the world's poor are women.
The majority of women work informally on the land and in their homes to provide food, water and shelter for their families, and are thus greatly dependent on natural resources. When climate change directly affects women's access to these resources, it generates negative consequences on their workload, health and overall wellbeing.
Examples, Ecuador and Bolivia
Ecuador was the first country in the world to include the rights of nature in its constitution in 2008. The following year it was Bolivia's turn. Both constitutions were given much impetus by environmental justice movements. “Nature, or Pacha Mama where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature. (...)” Ecuador's constitution Art. 71 Chapter 7 Rights of Nature .
In English, Buen Vivir is translated as "good living" or "well living" but the core meaning is living in harmony between human beings in a “unique environmental situation”. The government of Bolivia sets out ten key elements for Buen Vivir as part of Saving Planet Earth to Save Humanity:
o Denounce and end wars.
o Develop relations of coexistence, not subjection, among countries. A world without imperialism or colonialism.
o Development of environmentally friendly energy.
o Respect for Mother Earth.
o Basic services, such as water, education, health, communication, and collective transportation are human rights; they cannot be a private business, but rather a public service.
o Consume what is necessary, and put an end to consumerism, waste and luxury
o Promote diversity of cultures and economies.
o Live well in harmony with Mother Earth
Climate denial
The term denial, used at the beginning to identify who denies the terrible tragedy of the Shoah, is used at this point in other contexts .
A first part of arguments about climate denial are aimed at claiming that “nothing has changed”: greenhouse gases emissions due to human activities are not able to alter carbon dioxide (CO2) level. It is true that CO2 emissions by combustion of fossil fuels are not the main source of CO2 for the atmosphere, because other flows, originating by photosynthesis and by breathing of terrestrial and oceanic living organisms, are definitely larger. But we have to consider that other flows are in balance, a balance depending on atmosphere conditions, which has remained rather unvaried in the last ten-thousand years. A small contribution can alter an equilibrium in which far greater forces are involved. CO2 emissions and absorption absolute values during natural cycles are not crucial here, but the anthropogenic perturbations of these balances. After all, known natural factors are not able to explain the fast increase of CO2 concentrations during the last two centuries.
Climate change is become the main environmental issue of the XXI century; it is judged as unequivocal by the scientific community, which considers as really likely that the Earth will have to face climate changes very dangerous for people and ecosystems. Human perturbation occurs not only with emissions by fossil fuel combustion and cement production, but reducing natural “absorptions”, that is due to the deforestation; in fact the forest ecosystems absorb CO2 carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, during the photosynthesis.
Carbon cycle
Carbon is a fundamental element of our planet. Not only it is present in the ocean, air and rock, but also all living things are made of carbon. In our environment carbon is neither fixed nor stable, but instead moves between the Earth’s spheres. In the atmosphere, carbon exists in the oxidized form of CO2, carbon dioxide.
On the global scale, forests, wetlands and oceans are important carbon sinks, since they are considered the key eco-systems for climate regulation. In this context, forests are particularly key eco-systems that act as a long-term carbon sinks. As the trees grow, the forests bind carbon in the form of below- and above-ground biomass, imprisoning the absorbed carbon in the wood for decades.
Global warming
Since 1880, the average global temperature has increased about 0.9°C. The decadal average temperature over European land areas increased by approximately 1.3°C between pre-industrial times and the decade 2002-2011, more than the global planet average .
Consequences:
- Rising sea level - Oceans and atmosphere are interlinked and therefore the rise in temperatures affects as well the average temperatures of oceans; as water gets warmer it takes up more space. During 1901-2014, the sea level has risen 20 cm; the rate has increased to 3.3mm/year during 1993-2014. Sea level is also rising because melting glaciers, in particular in Greenland and in the Antarctic Peninsula and ice sheets are adding more water to the oceans.
- Increased Ocean Acidity - Ocean play an important role in keeping the Earth's carbon cycle in balance. Since human beings started burning fossil fuels, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30 percent. The consequences and scope of changes in pH for marine organisms and ecosystems are still not completely understood but potentially very dangerous.
- Shrinking Sea Ice - The Arctic Ocean around the North Pole is so cold that it is usually covered with ice. In the winter time, the area covered by ice gets wider, and in the summer, it shrinks. If the air and water are warmer than usual, Arctic Sea ice will melt more than usual during the summer. The minimum extent of summer sea ice registered in 2012 has been about the half of the minimum extent of the decade 1979-1988.
- Melting Glaciers - Glaciers are large sheets of snow and ice that are found on land all year long. Warmer temperatures cause glaciers to melt faster than they can accumulate new snow, and in fact glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide and will continue to shrink as the warming of the climate system go on. This will in turn affect the surrounding ecosystems and rivers’ seasonal water supplies (including drinking water).
Climate change - what can we do: mitigation and adaptation
Mitigation means to avoid the unmanageable such as making changes into energy use and production,
using energy more efficiently, promoting renewable energy and innovative technologies, stop deforestation.
Adaptation means managing the unavoidable such as minimizing damages due to climate change. It consists in actions of prevention regarding the different organization of territory and communities (change in techniques of buildings and infrastructures, farming and irrigation) but also in rescue and civil protection actions.
The case of Kiribati islands
Due to their location and geomorphological characteristics, Pacific islands are among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the impact of climate change. Remote and surrounded by the ocean, with small surface areas and low altitudes, these islands are at risk from both rapid-onset natural hazards, such as tsunamis, cyclones, typhoons and flooding, and slow-onset, such as soil erosion, droughts, coral bleaching, and salinization of soil and water. During the last decades, meteorological data proves that the Pacific climate has changed. The increase in temperature and intensity of cyclones and typhoons, the shifts in rainfall patterns and the rising sea level threaten the existence of many islands.
The Republic of Kiribati, comprising three main island groups with 33 scattered atolls and reef islands and one raised coral island, is a perfect example. Kiribati’s economy depends mainly on its marine resources while the limited land resources and terrestrial biodiversity are also critical for the livelihood of local people. The islands of Kiribati could disappear within the next 30 to 60 years. Some of the atolls could be completely submerged underwater or become uninhabitable because of salination. In 2013 a Kiribati man, Ioane Teitiota, claimed the status of climate change refugee under the Convention of Geneva (1951), referring to the part that regulates the Status of Refugees. Teitiota and his family arrived in New Zealand from Kiribati in 2007. After the expiration of their permits, they remained in the country illegally. After being arrested, they applied for refugee or protected person status. The New Zealand High Court rejected Teitiota’s claim.
Environmental refugee
In 1976 the term environmental refugee was used for the first time: it describes people who move due to the degradation of their environment, which can be linked to climate change (even to the point that there can be no return, as in the case with rising sea levels in small island states or low coastal areas). There are resemblances with people escaping war and persecution, but while war refugees can at least hope to return home someday, environmental refugees can never return home. Lastly, the most fateful distinction: while the war refugees are protected by the Geneva Convention, the environmental refugees enjoy no such legal protection.
Impacts of climate change
Climate change is affecting all countries, in all parts of the globe. But its impacts are distributed differently among regions, generations, age classes, income groups, occupations and genders. Poor women and men in rural areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America are especially vulnerable, since their livelihoods often depend on the resources of the environment they live in.
Women in particular are most affected by Climate Change, since they lack the tools to adapt, mitigate and react to environmental changes. In fact, the majority of the world's poor are women.
The majority of women work informally on the land and in their homes to provide food, water and shelter for their families, and are thus greatly dependent on natural resources. When climate change directly affects women's access to these resources, it generates negative consequences on their workload, health and overall wellbeing.
Examples, Ecuador and Bolivia
Ecuador was the first country in the world to include the rights of nature in its constitution in 2008. The following year it was Bolivia's turn. Both constitutions were given much impetus by environmental justice movements. “Nature, or Pacha Mama where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes. All persons, communities, peoples and nations can call upon public authorities to enforce the rights of nature. (...)” Ecuador's constitution Art. 71 Chapter 7 Rights of Nature .
In English, Buen Vivir is translated as "good living" or "well living" but the core meaning is living in harmony between human beings in a “unique environmental situation”. The government of Bolivia sets out ten key elements for Buen Vivir as part of Saving Planet Earth to Save Humanity:
o Denounce and end wars.
o Develop relations of coexistence, not subjection, among countries. A world without imperialism or colonialism.
o Development of environmentally friendly energy.
o Respect for Mother Earth.
o Basic services, such as water, education, health, communication, and collective transportation are human rights; they cannot be a private business, but rather a public service.
o Consume what is necessary, and put an end to consumerism, waste and luxury
o Promote diversity of cultures and economies.
o Live well in harmony with Mother Earth
Climate denial
The term denial, used at the beginning to identify who denies the terrible tragedy of the Shoah, is used at this point in other contexts .
A first part of arguments about climate denial are aimed at claiming that “nothing has changed”: greenhouse gases emissions due to human activities are not able to alter carbon dioxide (CO2) level. It is true that CO2 emissions by combustion of fossil fuels are not the main source of CO2 for the atmosphere, because other flows, originating by photosynthesis and by breathing of terrestrial and oceanic living organisms, are definitely larger. But we have to consider that other flows are in balance, a balance depending on atmosphere conditions, which has remained rather unvaried in the last ten-thousand years. A small contribution can alter an equilibrium in which far greater forces are involved. CO2 emissions and absorption absolute values during natural cycles are not crucial here, but the anthropogenic perturbations of these balances. After all, known natural factors are not able to explain the fast increase of CO2 concentrations during the last two centuries.