Global Warming Recent Developments

Traces history of issues of Greenhouse effect andnations needed to take action to negate the effects of
Global warmingglobal warming. Kyoto Protocol, an international
There is one subject that is certain to raise aagreement to fight global warming, was born in 1997.
passionate argument in a party these days and that isThis protocol called for countries to reduce their
Global Warming. Everybody has an opinion about it.emission of greenhouse gases. After eight years of
And why not? After all if the international action planshard bargaining, and acrimonious debates Kyoto treaty
for reduction of carbon emissions have to succeed,was finally ratified by 141 countries. Noteworthy among
every individual needs to be involved and committed tothe countries that did not ratify it were the USA and
it!Australia both the largest producers of greenhouse
It is generally believed that the earth was covered withgases.
ice about 15000 years ago. About 7000 years ago theThe treaty aims to limit and cut back emission of
earth began to warm up and the ice age came to angreenhouse gases to control global warming. It sets
end. Then again from the 14th century to the 19thlimits for emission from 35 developed countries;
century large parts of the earth experienced harsh,developing countries are exempted from emission
cold conditions. This period was known as the little icelimits to allow them time to catch up. Under the treaty,
age. In 1824 Fourier proposed the theory that solarvarious countries have committed to reduce the
radiations are trapped by the atmosphere andemissions to below their 1990 levels by 2012.
reflected back to the earth causing the earth to warmMost of the countries are struggling to limit the
up and that the earth was slowly getting warm.greenhouse emissions to the levels they had
Arrhenius termed it the greenhouse effect in the latecommitted to; many are finding it quite tough when it
19th century. In the 1950s, Callendar supported thecomes to pushing for action while balancing domestic
theory of the greenhouse effect.political pressures and pressure from oil & gas industry.
From late 20th century there was a much greaterIt is, however, heartening to note that there are already
attention being paid to environmental issues andsignificant success stories coming up where individual
serious scientific activities started for devising ways tocompanies have shown the leadership and achieved
measure global temperatures and to devise betterremarkable success in attaining, and in some cases
mathematical models to analyze earths climate. By theover attaining, their targets of reduction of carbon
end of the 20th century there was a large body ofemission. In USA public opinion is seen to be far more
scientific opinion that believed that increased carbondecisive and assertive than the Federal government
dioxide emissions, caused by ever increasing use ofand many states are going ahead enacting legislations
fossil fuels, were responsible for global warming. Into limit carbon emission while federal government
1994, the United Nations Panel on Climate Changetwiddles thumbs.
asserted that global warming was still a threat and