Global warming is around us, we can feel it year by year. The 12 hottest years of ever happened in the last 11 years. Why?! Our lifestyle is to blame. We can not take public transports because our car is more comfortable, we are starving of electricity: washing machine, dishwasher, microwaves, television, dvd, computers, freezers etc. We demand electricity and oil from our governments, we need it to live! The CO2 is getting thicker and thicker in the atmosphere.
Glaciers are melting and if they continue to melt at the actual rate coastal countries they will have serious problems with coastal cities being flooded in the next 100 years. In the summer of 2003 thousands of Europeans died as a consequence of high temperatures. In that summer in some parts of south Europe temperatures substantially increased to 50 degrees Celsius. Fires across Europe have destroyed thousands of hectares of forests.
European Union announced last month a program to increase the renewable energy consumed in Europe to 45 %until 2020. That is a good initiative but what about the rest of the world? Well, there is the Kyoto protocol. Kyoto protocol or agreement is a pact between 122 countries around the world; however some of the bigger world's polluters did not sign that agreement, including the USA. The USA authorities say that this agreement would hurt the American economy with the loss of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs! This agreement was signed in Japan in the 11th of December of 1997, which is a pact to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases to below 1990 levels by the year of 2012. This is quite demanding since we are 4 years away from the deadline.
Nevertheless we should not wait for our governments to start acting. There are small things that we can do such as share our car with our colleagues, being prudent in the use of electricity at home not wasting it, as well as not wasting water. This is a fundamental issue and it must be a problem to concern every single individual.
Glaciers are melting and if they continue to melt at the actual rate coastal countries they will have serious problems with coastal cities being flooded in the next 100 years. In the summer of 2003 thousands of Europeans died as a consequence of high temperatures. In that summer in some parts of south Europe temperatures substantially increased to 50 degrees Celsius. Fires across Europe have destroyed thousands of hectares of forests.
European Union announced last month a program to increase the renewable energy consumed in Europe to 45 %until 2020. That is a good initiative but what about the rest of the world? Well, there is the Kyoto protocol. Kyoto protocol or agreement is a pact between 122 countries around the world; however some of the bigger world's polluters did not sign that agreement, including the USA. The USA authorities say that this agreement would hurt the American economy with the loss of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs! This agreement was signed in Japan in the 11th of December of 1997, which is a pact to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases to below 1990 levels by the year of 2012. This is quite demanding since we are 4 years away from the deadline.
Nevertheless we should not wait for our governments to start acting. There are small things that we can do such as share our car with our colleagues, being prudent in the use of electricity at home not wasting it, as well as not wasting water. This is a fundamental issue and it must be a problem to concern every single individual.
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