{"id":3826,"date":"2021-07-15T11:24:48","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/?page_id=3826"},"modified":"2021-07-15T11:24:49","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T08:24:49","slug":"summary-climate-change-why-should-we-care","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/?page_id=3826","title":{"rendered":"SUMMARY. Climate change: why should we care?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Climate change is driven by human activities and affects our live and that of future generations. It is up to us to make a change for a liveable future on earth. In this article we will explain climate change from a LIFE OrgBalt project view. We will explain causes and consequences by answering the following questions: What is climate change, what are driving causes, which are the main related challenges and what can be done to tackle them?<\/strong> FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE: HERE<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwhat causes climate change?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Earth\u2019s atmosphere\ncontains certain gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), ozone (O3),\nnitrous oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC-11, CFC-12), that function like\nglass panels of a greenhouse letting sunlight passing the atmosphere. Solar\nlight is then transformed on the earth\u2019s surface into heat energy and reflected\nback into the atmosphere where it cannot pass the greenhouse gas \u201cshield\u201d.\nHuman activities however increase the concentration of greenhouse gases in the\natmosphere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the main factors responsible for the\nrapid increase of GHG emissions in the atmosphere are anthropogenic GHG\nemissions from utilisation of fossil carbon resources like oil, gas, coal, and\nnutrient-rich organic soils.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\nare the consequences of this human-driven climate change we are currently\nexperiencing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main impacts of climate change is\nits multiple effects on water management with a clear impact on our health and\nthe economy as well as on all freshwater dependent ecosystems.  Global\nwarming threatens fresh water availability and quality, promoting salinisation,\ngrowth of toxic algae and bacteria. This affects agriculture and forestry by:\nPreventing the growth of trees and crops; increasing pest attacks and extent\nwildfires and diminishing water availability and habitat variety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rise in temperatures and\ndroughts along with the lack of precipitation accelerates land degradation and\nloss of productive and fertile land and to increased vulnerability to\ndesertification. Soil degradation in turn boosts climate change by increased\nGHG emissions, loss of moist and cooling landscape elements and accelerates\ndesertification and loss of biodiversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, climate change is expected\nto increase the frequency of floods and heavy rainstorms, due to an increase in\npeak precipitation events. In the last three decades river flooding has become\na common natural disaster in Europe which along with storms have affected\nmillions of people causing accidents and large economic losses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we taking actions to\ntackle climate change?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the Paris agreement, for the first time all world nations signed a binding agreement to combat climate change and adapt to its effects. Adopted by 196 Parties on 12nd<\/sup> December 2015 and entered into force on 4th November 2016, the agreement commits all United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change member countries to limit the global temperature increase (global warming) to well below 2\u00a0\u00b0C (preferably 1,5 \u00b0C) above the pre-industrial level.[i]<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Europe plays a great role in\nthis respect aiming to become the world\u2019s first climate-neutral continent with\nthe European Green Deal a roadmap to make the EU\u2019s economy sustainable\nannounced on 11st December 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ncan carbon neutrality be achieved? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To achieve climate neutrality, society therefore needs to shift from an industrial competing model that exploits fossil and other natural resources to a carbon neutral and cooperative model which focuses on closed and sustainable carbon cycles in order to restore the carbon balance. Land plays an important role in this process.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE: HERE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

[i]<\/a> https:\/\/unfccc.int\/process-and-meetings\/the-paris-agreement\/the-paris-agreement<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change is driven by human activities and affects our live and that of future generations. It is up to us to make a change for a liveable future on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":3649,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3826","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3827,"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3826\/revisions\/3827"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orgbalt.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}