Climate change summit

Many studies and researchers found that since the Industrial Revolution (around 1750), human activities have substantially added to the amount of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The burning of fossil fuels and biomass (living matter such as vegetation) has also resulted in emissions of aerosols that absorb and emit heat, and reflect light. The addition of greenhouse gases and aerosols has changed the composition of the atmosphere. The changes in the atmosphere have likely influenced temperature, precipitation, storms and sea level (IPCC, 2007).

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere will continuously increase unless greenhouse gas emissions decrease substantially from present levels. Increased greenhouse gas concentrations are very likely to raise the Earth's average temperature, influence precipitation and some storm patterns as well as raise sea levels. The amount and speed of future climate change will ultimately depend on the level of greenhouse gases and aerosol concentrations, responsiveness of feathers of the climate to the changes and the variation of climate resulting from the natural influences.

As a result, the greenhouse emission, leading to a climate change, becomes more important issue in many countries. This is why many countries under U.N. are gathered in U.N. summit in Copenhagen in December, billing as the place 192 countries would complete a new emission pact. But it seems to be that this might be postponed to 2010 because of the health care reform.

Some key leaders in this issues thought that completing a new treaty within three months is too difficult and impossible. So they think it would be better if we find “plan B” to be like a backup plan. However, some officer said that this summit would be the last chance to battle against the greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, the delay could lead to a major problem as it already happened with 1997 Kyoto Protocol talks. At that time, US helped write a treaty which the senate refused to approve. This makes US lost in confidence and reliability among other nations and they are not trusted in any US proposals without legislation to back up their promises. Another key concern for this summit is the financial matter. They still discuss on the financing issues like how much developed countries need to give to support those developing countries and what actions every countries need to do.

This should be carefully considered since this issue is going to have an impact on every people’s life. In my opinion, US still need to be prepared for this summit. They should well-balanced any resources between the health care reform and other subjects since they might be as important as its health reform.

sources:
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/futurecc.html
http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/science/recentcc.html