World Is So Hot!!!
How can we do to help our children survive the future?
This is real that we are facing global warming crisis and climate change. It is already beginning to transform lives on Earth. Around the world, seasons are shifting, temperatures are climbing and sea levels are rising. Many areas around the world are extremely hot, some areas are extremely cold, some areas have a lot of storms but some areas are very dry and cannot do plantations. Global warming and climate change are not far away from us anymore.
According to a report published by the World Bank in 2000, "the Pacific Islands are increasingly becoming vulnerable to extreme weathers as growing urbanization and squatter settlements, degradation of coastal ecosystems, and rapidly developing infrastructure on coastal areas intensify the island's natural exposure to climates. Among the most substantial impacts of climate change would be losses of coastal infrastructure and land resulting from inundation, storm surge, and shoreline erosion. Climate change could also cause more intense cyclones and droughts, the failure of subsistence crops and coastal fisheries, losses in coral reefs, and the spread of malaria and dengue fever."
The example of global warming which seriously effected to the humans and their home town is Carteret Island in Papua New Guinea. This island is located 86km north-east from Bougainville in the South Pacific Ocean and facing with big effect caused by rises of sea water level associated with global warming. As the sea level rises, their drinking water and crops have been poisoned by salt. Approximately 3000 peoples abandoned their homes to the waves. They are preparing to migrate and countdown when their home town will be sinking under the sea. This global warming and climate change have big impact to us more and more every year.
Tuvalu is another island which is seriously effected from sea level rising. Tuvalu is the name of Polynesian islands nation located in the Pacific Ocean, midway between Hawaii and Australia. The islands are little more than thin ribbon-like atolls scattered in the immensity of the Pacific Ocean. At their highest point, they stand no more than four meters (13 feet) above sea level. Their home town is also gradually sinking due to rising of sea water level. Can you imagine to the feeling of people in both islands?
From NASA's information, the scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for decades to come, largely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries, forecasts a temperature rise of 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.
This sound like a small amount of temperature change. What's the big deal? NASA explained that "Each One degree may sound like a small amount, but it's an unusual event in our planet's recent history. Earth's climate record, preserved in tree rings, ice cores, and coral reefs, shows that the global average temperature is stable over long periods of time. Furthermore, small changes in temperature correspond to enormous changes in the environment."
Information from NASA website show that the satellite observations recently have detected thinning parts of the Greenland ice sheet at lower elevations. A partial melting of this ice sheet would cause a 1-meter rise. If melted completely, the Greenland ice sheet contains enough water to raise sea level by 5-7 meters. This visualization shows the effect on coastal regions for each meter of sea level rise, up to 6 meters. Land that would be covered in water is shaded red in below picture.
IPCC forecasted impacts of global warming and climate change in Asia that "Freshwater availability projected to decrease in Central, South, East and Southeast Asia by the 2050s; coastal areas will be at risks due to increased flooding; death rate from disease associated with floods and droughts is expected to rise in some regions."
Global warming and climate change impact human and all living organisms in the world. When the sea-surface temperatures increased due to global warming, warmer waters in the shallow oceans have contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world's coral reefs in the last few decades. Many of the coral animals died after being weakened by bleaching, a process tied to warmed waters. The research results show that the rising of sea water temperature can increase wind velocity and humidity in the storms as well as severity of them.
Now most of people know the effects of global warming and climate change. The question is "How can we do to safe our world?". In many countries, organizations and companies started to discuss and implement sustainable development. Some company started to monitor their carbon foot print and try to reduce air emissions and energy consumptions.
At U-ProChem, we consider the challenges and focus to support and help our customer reduce air emission and reduce energy consumption. With new equipment technology, we can help customer reduce air emission, increase efficiency and/or reduce energy consumption which
For the individual person, We should ask the question to ourselves that "What we can do individually to help our world?". Many people may think that "this problem is too big and we cannot do anything". Actually, there are many easy activities that we can perform to save our world if we can do these activities as normal practices. The examples of individual action that we can perform are reducing of electrical consumption in our house by adjusting temperature of air conditioners to suitable temperature (25oC), turning off unnecessary lighting, trying to use more public transportation instead of private car, using basket or cotton bag when we do shopping, etc.
We should ask ourselves that "How much are we serious on this mankind's crisis?" If we don't act anything now, global warming and climate change will rapidly alter the lands, water, crops and animals which we are all depended upon for survival then we leave our children and grandchildren facing with a very different world.
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