What are your views about Global Warming Issues in India?

Answer 1

Our population should be checked, immediately. you can understand very well the relation between population and global warming. More population means more demands in everything.

Answer 2

Why are global warming issues in India any different than anywhere else? The key word is "global". I mean obviously a lot of the country is quite warm already due to geographical location so it only stands to get warmer, but so do a lot of places.

Answer 3

Watch "An Inconvenient Truth " by Al Gore.

Answer 4

Global warming and climate change is looked at in this section of the global issues web site. Introduced are some of the effects of climate change. In addition, this section attempts to provide insights into what governments, companies, international institutions, and other organizations are attempting to do about this issue, as well as the challenges they face. Some of the major conferences in recent years are also discussed.

Climate Change and Global Warming IntroductionThe climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is now overwhelming scientific concensus that it is happening, and human-induced. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. Many are agreed that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. Recent years show increasing temperatures in various regions, and/or increasing extremities in weather patterns. This section looks at what causes climate change, what the impacts are and where scientific concensus currently is. Last updated Thursday, February 08, 2007.

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Global DimmingResearch has shown that air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. This leads to an effect known as global dimming whereby less heat and energy reaches the earth. At first, it sounds like an ironic savior to climate change problems. However, it is believed that global dimming caused the droughts in Ethiopia in the 1970s and 80s where millions died, because the northern hemisphere oceans were not warm enough to allow rain formation. Global dimming is also hiding the true power of global warming. By cleaning up global dimming-causing pollutants without tackling greenhouse gas emissions, rapid warming has been observed, and various human health and ecological disasters have resulted, as witnessed during the European heat wave in 2003, which saw thousands of people die. Posted Saturday, January 15, 2005.

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UN Framework Convention on Climate ChangeThe world mostly agrees that something needs to be done about global warming and climate change. The first stumbling block, however, has been trying to get an agreement on a framework. In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meterological Organization (WMO) to assess the scientific knowledge on global warming. The IPCC concluded in 1990 that there was broad international consensus that climate change was human-induced. That report led way to an international convention for climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed by over 150 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. This section looks at this Convention and some of the main principles in it. Last updated Saturday, December 25, 2004.

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Reactions to Climate Change Negotiations and ActionThe United States plus a few other countries, and many large corporations have been against climate change treaties due to the fear of the threat to their economy and profits if they have to make substantial changes, as well as the fear of realizing that perhaps their methods have been the primary contributors to the problem. This section explores some of those fears to see if they are justified or not. Last updated Wednesday, February 14, 2007.

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Global Warming, Spin and Media For many years, large, influential businesses and governments have been against the idea of global warming. Many have poured a lot of resources into discrediting what has generally been accepted for a long time as real. Now, the mainstream is generally worried about climate change impacts and the discourse seems to have shifted accordingly. Even some businesses that once engaged in disinformation campaigns have changed their opinions, some even requesting governments for regulation and direction on this issue. However, a few influential companies and organizations are still attempting to undermine climate change action and concerns. Will all this mean a different type of spin and propaganda with attempts at “green washing” and misleading information becoming the norm, or will there now be major shift in attitudes to see concrete solutions being proposed and implemented? Last updated Sunday, March 18, 2007.

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Climate Justice and EquityA growing concern from developing countries and various NGOs is the need for public participation and the effect on populations and poor countries that global warming negotiations have. The impacts of climate change will be felt on the world’s poorest countries the most. In some cases, climate changes have already affected some small island nations. Climate justice, equity and sustainable development are all important parts of this debate that are often left out of mainstream discourse. Equal rights to the atmosphere for all human beings and equity within and between nations are paramount.

An agreed principle was that of common but different responsibilities.

That is, when the world’s majority countries signed up to climate change Convention (including countries like the US who would later withdraw from the subsequent Kyoto Protocol) it was agreed that it is today’s rich nations who are the ones responsible for global warming as greenhouse gases tend to remain in the atmosphere for many decades, and rich countries have been industrializing and emitting climate changing pollution for many more centuries than the poor countries.

It was also agreed that the poor countries had pressing needs to meet basic needs and eradicate poverty. As a result, it was agreed that it would be unfair to put emissions restrictions on poor countries when it is the rich countries who have caused the problems.

Nonetheless, some poor countries have already started to make emission reductions, showing that the rich countries can do it to.

These issues are explored in more depth here. Last updated Sunday, June 03, 2007.

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Flexibility MechanismsFlexibility mechanisms were defined in the Kyoto Protocol as different ways to achieve emissions reduction as part of the effort to address climate change issues. These fall into the following categories: Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and Clean Development Mechanism. However, these have been highly controversial as they were mainly included on strong US insistence and to keep the US in the treaty. Some of the mechanisms face criticism for not actually leading to a reduction in emissions, for example. Last updated Wednesday, July 04, 2007.

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Carbon Sinks, Forests and Climate ChangeA mechanism suggested for tackling climate change and warming has been the idea of using “Carbon Sinks” to soak up carbon dioxide. To aid in this, reforestation, or planting of new forests, have been suggested. This is a popular strategy for the logging industry and nations with large forests interests. While there may be some potential in this solution, it cannot be effective on its own. This is because it legitimizes continued destruction of old-growth and pristine forests which are rich ecosystems and have an established biodiversity base (albeit shrinking now) that naturally maintain the environment (at no cost!). Creating new forest areas would require the creation of entire ecosystems. It is also criticized for being a quick fix that does not tackle the root causes effectively and does not lead to, or promote actual emissions reduction. Last updated Tuesday, October 29, 2002.

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Global Warming and Population It seems there has been a recent interest in associating climate change/global warming with “over population” and that countries such as China and India have to do more to help contain global warming.

Yet rich countries have a lot to do themselves. There were agreed reasons why developing countries were exempt from initial greenhouse gas emission targets: it was the emissions from rich countries that accumulated in the atmosphere for so long to trigger climate change. Posted Thursday, February 01, 2007.

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COP11—Montreal ConferenceDecember 2005 saw the eleventh session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP11 for short). At the same time, the first Meeting of the Parties of the Protocol (MOP 1) took place. These meetings attempted to advance discussions on the future emission reductions and ways to help developing countries. The US walked out at one point of the meeting, but were eventually convinced to come back to the conference. The result, some felt, was a slightly weakened text, but something to build upon for the future. Developing countries were also discussed, but issues of climate justice and equity seemed to be missing once again. Posted Thursday, December 29, 2005.

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COP10—Buenos Aires ConferenceDecember 2004 saw the tenth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP10 for short). This marked the 10th anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol. Countries were to discuss adaption measures, and the entry of the Kyoto Protocol into force. In addition, some discussion on post-Kyoto was also attempted. Posted Friday, December 24, 2004.

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COP8—Delhi ConferenceOctober 23 to November 1, 2002 saw the eighth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP8 for short). Leading up to this conference there has still been little progress on reducing emissions. Last updated Saturday, November 02, 2002.

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COP7—Marrakesh ConferenceOctober 29 to November 9, 2001 saw the seventh session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP7 for short). The purpose of the meeting was to agree legal text covering outstanding technical aspects of the political agreement reached in Bonn in July 2001 on how to implement the Kyoto Protocol. While an agreement resulted, there are still concerns there will be little impact on emissions as a result. Posted Sunday, November 11, 2001.

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COP6—The Hague ConferenceNovember 13 to November 24, 2000 saw the sixth session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (or, COP6 for short). Each COP meeting is where nations meet to evaluate the accords and compliance with meeting emissions reduction targets. This one was intended to wrap up three years of negotiations on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol. Instead though, the talks pretty much collapsed. Last updated Tuesday, September 04, 2001.

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COP4—Buenos Aires ConferenceNovember 2 - November 13, 1998 in Buenos Aires, Argentina the Fourth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-4) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was held. There were many issues that still needed to be discussed, epecially on the trading of Carbon emissions and equity between the rich and developing nations. Last updated Sunday, November 12, 2000.

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COP3—Kyoto Protocol and Conference1997, at the Conference of Parties III (COP3), Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto conference on climate change took place. There, developed countries agreed to specific targets for cutting their emissions of greenhouse gases. A general framework was defined for this, with specifics to be detailed over the next few years. This became known as the Kyoto Protocol. The US proposed to just stabilize emissions and not cut them at all, while the European Union called for a 15% cut. In the end, there was a trade off, and industrialized countries were committed to an overall reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases to 5.2% below 1990 levels for the period 2008 - 2012. (The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in its 1990 report that a 60% reduction in emissions was needed...) As with the following COP meetings, there was enormous media propaganda by affected big businesses and by countries such as the U.S. who were openly hostile to the treaty. In fact one of the first things George Bush did when he came to power was to oppose the Kyoto Protocol. Last updated Friday, February 15, 2002.

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The Ozone Layer and Climate ChangeScientists believe that Global Warming will lead to a weaker Ozone layer, because as the surface temperature rises, the stratosphere (the Ozone layer being found in the upper part) will get colder, making the natural repairing of the Ozone slower. Last updated Saturday, June 08, 2002.

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The Childish Pranks of El NiñoThe 1997 Niño caused huge problems all over the world, from droughts to floods and poor yield of crops. It is thought that there is a link between climate change and the severity of Niño. Last updated Wednesday, Jul