Time for change

In April 2007, the second report of IPCC (1) on the effects of global warming will be released. This new report will basically confirm the cause and effects of global warming, which have already been know for years. The evidence of earlier predictions is much increased and approaching certainty, however.

The draft summary urges mankind to act quickly. But even rigorous measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases can only mitigate and by no means prevent severe effects on our environment. Among the most important consequences of global warming are:

• Increasing number of deaths as a consequence of heat waves, floods, droughts, tornadoes and other extreme weather conditions.

• More and larger fires in woods ("mega fires"), in particular for North America.

• Within a couple of decades, hundreds of millions of people will not have enough water.

• Reduction of the biological diversity on Earth: 20 to 30 percent of all species are expected to be extinguished. This will have severe consequences on the respective food chains.

• The increase of the sea level is expected to force 2.8 million people in Europe alone to move away from the coasts. World-wide, tens of millions of people per year will need to move away from coastal areas within the next decades.

• Melting of glaciers: In Europe, small glaciers will disappear entirely, larger ones will shrink to about 30% of their current size.

• Change in agricultural yields will force many people (in particular for warmer countries) to migrate into other areas of the world. Hundreds of millions of people are facing starvation by the year 2080 as an effect of global warming.

• Come back of diseases like malaria into areas, where they have previously been extinguished.

Ban Ki-Moon, the general secretary of United Nations, has asked the United States to take leadership in mitigating global warming .

On this site, you can find further information about the cause and effects of global warming , statistics and graphs about emissions of carbon dioxide or current and predicted energy consumptions. We provide information about potential solutions and alert from pretended solutions like e.g. nuclear power stations. The true cause of global warming is our thoughtless attitude to Nature. We seem to have forgotten that we are only part of a larger whole.

The bottom line is that we all will have to reduce our energy consumption down to a level which can be supplied by renewable energies. A sustainable living is the only long-term solution.

(1) The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by WMO and UNEP to assess scientific, technical and socio-economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.