In the finest moments of gentility and noble thoughts the leaders of the World had joined heads and decided to save the planet earth. They reached upon an Accord in the city of Kyoto. The Kyoto Protocol U.N. Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), was aimed at combating global warming. Its a treaty with the goal of achieving “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16 February 2005. 187 states have signed and ratified the protocol.

The Kyoto Accord is an international treaty whereby countries agree to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases they emit if their neighbors do likewise. It is a very complex agreement that allows trading pollution credits. If it is cheaper to reduce emissions in country A, then country B can buy the pollution credits, and have them count toward its own quota of reductions. Ironically, the global atmosphere does not care where the greenhouse gas reductions come from. Doesn’t the following sound funny:
“Kyoto Accord calls for a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 6% in Canada and 5% in the USA“.

Millions of years before the Industrial Revolution the level of pollutant gases in atmosphere was in harmony with life upon earth. As a result of the industry growth the pollutant gases took charge of skies and caused the ‘greenhouse effect’ – the harmful gas levels, particularly CO2. It started to climb rapidly. They are now astronomically higher than what they had been in 20 million years. The evolution process is neither gradual nor natural. To generate energy we are burning the oil, coal, forests and every resource which could give us energy. The gases – by product of the process are trapped in the atmosphere and generate heat. This heating is called global warming.

Global warming has already reduced the depth of the winter polar ice cap since the 1970s by 40%. Polar bears will become extinct if the ice retreat continues. 90% of all glaciers on the planet have retreated significantly in the last 50 years. As the white reflective snow melts, it leaves behind the darker earth which is even more efficient at absorbing solar energy. This causes an acceleration of the heating effect.

And now see how its effecting or going to effect if fail in Copenhagen:
The see level would rise all over the globe and it would be the beginning the disappearance of all coastal habitats irrespective of power and pelf of a country. Large parts of Florida, and much of the eastern US seaboard will be at risk if the Greenland icecap and the west Antarctic icecap melt.
As there would be more heat in the atmosphere than needed to balance the ecosystem, we will have more turbulent weather, more tornadoes, hurricanes and super hurricanes. We have already seen the damage to life and property from tropical storms and no one could predict the extent of damage that could wreck the life if the situation is allowed to go worse.

More heat would play havoc with the patterns of rain. We are now seeing freakish storms all over the world that dump many feet of water in a single day where previously even an inch would have been considered a major downpour. Floods in Jeddah seem interesting and welcoming but these are the premonitions of things to come. The changing patterns of rain would cause inundations in some areas and droughts in places that previously had abundant rainfall.

It would be interesting to remind that there have been two mass extinctions in earth history, the ‘Permian‘, 230 million years ago, was the worst. 70% of all species were lost. It was caused by natural global warming when volcanoes released greenhouse gases. The other more familiar to most people was the more recent ‘KT Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction’ event, 65 million years ago. It was caused when an asteroid plunged into the earth at Chicxulub Mexico wiping out the dinosaurs and half of earth’s species.
We are re-experiencing the same global warming conditions that triggered the more devastating Permian extinction, only this time it is man made.

Let us now see how we are destroying ourselves. When it gets too hot, plants die. When it gets too hot and dry, massive fires ravage huge areas. When plants die, insects and herbivores die. When insects die, even heat-resistant plant’s don’t get pollinated and die. Birds die without insects to eat. Carnivores die without herbivores to eat, all triggered by what seems so innocuous — heat. Similarly, in the oceans, when they get just a few degrees too warm, corals expel their symbiotic algae and die soon thereafter. When coral reefs die, the fish that live on them die, triggering extinction chains.
What are we waiting for?

Naim Naqvi

Did his graduation in Science discipline from AMU in 1972-73. He was Secretary of University Ali Society in 1970 and M.M. Hall Literary Society in early 70 's and member of Tayyabji Literary Society. Did his Diploma in Bakery Administration from HTT College Oxford Street London in 1987. Worked with National Herald - Delhi, Blitz - Bombay as Trainee Journalist and in Production Department with 'Naya Sansar Pictures' of Khwaja Ahmed Abbas at Bombay in early 70's. Traveled for study and training purposes to Germany, U.K., Switzerland, France, Dubai, Oman, AbuDhabi, Bahrain and Philepines.

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