About Climate Change - What Is Climate Change?

The climate on Earth has been bustling with changes ever since the industrial revolution. These changes are mostly caused by the energy we all use in the form of fossil fuels like oil, natural gas and coal. By burning these fossil fuels the emission of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere increases. These greenhouse gases retain heat in the atmosphere and increase the so-called greenhouse effect. Greenhouse gases are for instance: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH2), laughing gas (N2O), water vapour (H2O) and ozone (03).
The energy we use in the form of electricity, gas or natural gas increase the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and does increase the greenhouse effect. The consequences are that the temperature on Earth increases and has consequences for everybody.

What are the consequences of climate change?

The scientific evidence of climate change is now beyond dispute. The average temperature on Earth rose since the Industrial Revolution by 1° Fahrenheit. Until the present day the year 2005 has been the hottest year in records with 1998 on the second place. This climate change has demonstrable consequences since the 1980s and 90s :

Important changes in the seasons;

• The melting of ice masses and gletschers, which resulted in an 8 inch rise of the sealevel;
• Increase in floods, tropical storms, heavy rains, lengthy droughts in a higher frequency and more serious than before;
• Doubling of the number of hurricanes with maximal hurricane force resulting in great economic and social damage (e.g. hurricane Katrina, New Orleans 2005);
  

This all happens now, with a  temperature rise of only 1°F. Scientists predict that in this century the temperature will rise between 1.8 and 7°F. They expected that the consequences of this temperature rise will be much severe:

• A further 3 feet rise of the sealevel resulting in more flooding of coastal areas and scarcity of drinking water in these areas.
• Disappearance of nature areas, like coral reefs, followed by severe forest fires and desertification.
• Scarcity of food supplies by longer droughts or heavy floods.
• Increase of- and the emergence of contagious diseases in areas where these illnesses are not common upto now, diseases like cholera, and malaria, dengue, but also an increase of asthma and various sorts of allergies.