Miosotis Milena Velba Nadine Jansen

SOS Environment

The environmental situation of our planet is deteriorating year by year. Increases the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the Gulf Stream is a tantrum and threatens to cool down, while the sea level tends to rise.

These are the data from the Worldwatch Institute, one of the most prestigious U.S. research, which recently presented in Washington, a report on the health of the planet earth.

"State of the World 2009" takes stock of the situation that has arisen in a few paragraphs and summarize the major issues. Let's see what it is:

emissions

The IPCC, the UN task force of scientists, has been accused for years by the oil lobby to exaggerate the alarm tones. But from the first report on the fourth (1990 - 2007) his predictions were too conservative: the climate change beat any estimate. Even the latter figure, that for 2007, show continuous progression of the greenhouse emissions that result from the use of fossil fuels and deforestation. It has gone from 22.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 1990 to 31 billion in 2007: more than 37 percent. To which are added to the 6.5 billion tons resulting from deforestation. So the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is no longer growing at a rate of 1.5 parts per million per year but has reached more than 2.2 shares per year (source: The Republic )

seas

The loss of ice from Greenland and the Antarctic Peninsula was not included in the IPCC assessment because the margins of uncertainty about the speed of the process were considered too high. Adding this item, you get a much more alarming than the one provided Scientists from the UN: the rise of ocean levels over the current century may exceed three times the upper limit of IPCC (0.59 meters) to draw a scenario where the slope of the water is measured in meters instead of centimeters ( The source Republic);

triggers climate

are called tipping points and points of no return, the moments when the process of change takes a sudden and irreversible step in the time scale of interest ' humanity. One of these tipping points about the Gulf Stream, the great treadmill energy that heats the north-west Europe. The influx of fresh water resulting from loss of Arctic ice could block or slow down causing this current cold wave over Britain and Scandinavia (the phenomenon is described with hollywodiana exaggeration in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"). The acidification of the oceans, which threatens many forms of marine life, is another tipping point (Source: The Republic )

care

To avoid climate chaos reaches the point where the damage become serious should stop the growth of the temperature increase to 1.4 degrees compared to pre-industrial level.

In reality it is virtually certain that this goal has now unattainable. But it might bring trouble avoiding the worst. How? The recipe is in the second part of the report, one devoted to bioclimatic buildings, increasing energy efficiency, development of renewable energy. In 2007, renewables (including hydropower) provided 18 percent of electricity worldwide (Source: The Republic ).

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5658

http://www.repubblica.it/2009/01/sezioni/ambiente/state-of-the-world/state-of- the-world/state-of-the-world.html