Is Global Warming a Global Threat
Climate change has the potential to impact the progress of nations and societies toward sustainability. Climate change impacts on the timing, flow, and amount of available fresh water resources, could for example affect the ability of developing nations to increase access to potable water. There could similarly be adverse consequences for food security. However, the anthropogenic drivers of climate change, per se, affect Millennium Development Goals in only two ways – in terms of energy use per dollar GDP and CO2 emissions per capita. Per capita CO2 emissions in developing countries rose from 1.7 tonnes in 1990 to 2.1 tonnes per capita in 2002, still far short of 12.6 tonnes of per capita consumed in developed countries (UN 2005).
Our planet earth is already showing signs of climate change and we cannot afford to overlook these tell tale signs. According to NASA’s Goddard Institute for SpaceAcademy, the avarage temperature has climbed 1.4 degrees Farenheit (0.8 degree C) since 1880 (Brown 2006). Moreover, the rate of warming has also significantly increased in recent years. The last two decades of the 20th century has been hottest in the last 400 years and possibly warmest for several millenia as revealed by the study conducted by the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Strom 2007). According to the same study, 11 of the 12 among the dozen warmest years since 1850 have been in the last two decades of 20th century (news.nationalgeographic.com).