The Brochure - GLOBAL WARMING and local effects

Summary
In a nutshell, it’s not a possibility to use renewable energy, it’s a must. Other energy resources
like coal, natural gas, petroleum or uranium will extinguish due to increasing energy demand.
Furthermore, non-renewable resources usually produce pollution or radioactive waste. As
nobody wants to live in a polluted world without energy, we have to switch to hydropower,
solar energy, geothermal energy and wind power – the sooner the better!
Causes of Climate Change
In the last 100 years, the Earth has warmed by 0.75 degrees Celsius. Global sea levels have gone up,
glaciers and sea ice have melted, and extreme weather events, like floods and droughts, are likely to
happen more often.
The causes of climate change can be divided into two categories:
1. human causes
2. natural causes
It is now a global concern that the climatic changes occurring today have been speeded up
because of man's activities.
The natural variability and the climate fluctuations of the climate system have always been
part of the Earth’s history however there have been changes in concentrations of greenhouse
gases in the atmosphere growing at an unprecedented rate and magnitude. The United
Nations, governments and many top scientists around the world believe that we must act now
to stabilize and arrest further changes.
To understand climate change fully, the causes of climate change must be first identified.
The enormous consumption of fossil fuels started in the Industrial Revolution in the 19th
century. Fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas supply most of the energy needed to run
vehicles, generate electricity for industries and households. The energy sector is responsible
for about ¾ of the carbon dioxide emissions, 1/5 of the methane emissions and a large
quantity of nitrous oxide.
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