Affects of Global Warming

1 - The people who live on the small Pacific islands of Kiribati and Tuvalu do not need to read about climate change and global warming because it is happening all around them. Sea levels are rising and their way of life is transforming. Farmers are struggling to grow crops. Fish are dying because the sea is too warm and drinking water can’t be found easily. A neighbouring island has already disappeared and the islanders are afraid that their homes will be underwater soon.

2 - Experts believe that some places are already 2 °C hotter than they were 50 years ago and that temperatures will rise by at least 5 °C in the next hundred years. This means that the ice at the North and South Poles will melt. As a result of this sea level will rise.

3 – Global warming is the current increase in temperature of the Earth's surface (both land and water) as well as it's the atmosphere. In the past, when the Earth experienced increases in temperature it was the result of natural causes but today humans are now making the greenhouse effect happen too quickly by burning too much coal and oil. Burning coal and oil creates extra carbon dioxide and makes the Earth get hotter.

4 - In an attempt to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, the United Nations created the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. Representatives from 141 countries signed the agreement and they meet regularly to discuss their progress. They say that they are going to cut air pollution by 5% by 2012. The USA, which produces a quarter of the Earth’s carbon dioxide, hasn’t signed the agreement. This means that it will be hard for the Kyoto protocol to work.

5 - No one knows exactly what will happen in the future, but scientists believe that the weather will be much more extreme. Global warming will cause more hurricanes, more floods and droughts. Some parts of the world may get warmer and also get more rain, but others may get colder and even freeze. This will affect our forests, the food we grow and the spread of disease. It is hard to imagine, but all these changes might happen in just a few generations. We have one world and our duty is to look after it.