Global Warming

We had a case study on global warming. there was heated argument between me, Steve (US) and Lucio (Australia) regarding the effects of carbon dioxide (CO2) on global warming. Lucio was presenting the paper. He said that there are two school of thoughts, one, CO2 causes global warming and the other was there is no evidence to support that CO2 leads to global warming. He supported the second view and me the first. The whole argument arose when I questioned why Australia and US didn't sign the Kyoto protocol where industrialized nations ratified to reduce the CO2 emission levels. Japan agreed to reduce by 6% and European nations by 8% (below the 1990 levels) for the period 2008-2012. Lucio said that firstly, it's not proven CO2 causes global warming. Secondly, he said 'bloody hell' why the Indians and Chinese are not subjected to Kyoto protocol. They are polluting even greater with all the investment and industries moving over there.

My arguments, firstly, there is a correlation between CO2 and global warming. Simple example you go to a city with all the heavy traffic congestion and compare with a rural town where no traffic congestion. Compare the tempareture and the smoke levels between the two places. Secondly, the global warming through the 'greenhouse effect' had caused the global sea level to rise between 4 to 8 inches since 1900. The US is the largest emitter of CO2. I agree to the reasoning that developing countries should also be part of the Kyoto protocol and rules and regulation should be drafted for them to maintain certain minimum level of CO2 emission.

Concerted efforts should also be taken to combat the ignorance on the global warming issue. The low lying areas are going to face the consequences due to irresponsible activities of the large CO2 emitters. The developed and developing world should also jointly formulate measures to reduce CO2 emission levels. The green areas (lungs) of the world should be preserved. In addition, rich and poor countries can jointly conduct reasearches on global warming.

Gonna Quit Smoking begining Monday, 19/5/2008