Climate change is essentially unavoidable. Earth's climate is dynamic and constantly changing through natural cycles. This change can be detected and studied by experts through scientific evidence stored in the tree cambium rings, ice core and ocean sediment. It is evident that today's climate change appears to have a tendency that is constant,-that is increasing global temperatures.
The debate lies in the causes of climate change. Some parties claim that climate change occurs because of normal fluctuations in both nature. Others argue that climate change caused by human activity. The fact is: climate change is happening lately has diverse causes, but is significantly accelerated by human activity.
In February 2007, an international panel of experts who are members of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced its findings stating conclusively that:
* Global warming is happening
* Increased global temperature is the impact of human activity
* With current trends, which are temperature extremes, heat waves and heavy rain will continue to increase in frequency. The temperature of the earth and seas will continue to rise in the next millennium.
Why human activity is a major cause of climate change? The answer lies in the fossil fuel and greenhouse gases. Industrial Revolution in the 19th century started the use of fuel on a large scale for industrial activity. These industries create jobs and spur the relocation of population from rural to urban. This trend continues even today. Land that had been leveled green continues to provide land for housing. Existing natural resources continue to be used intensively for the needs of the construction, industrial, transportation and consumption. Rubbish and waste discharge volume has increased exponentially.
All of the above culminate in one thing: increased concentrations of greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere. They are so called because the effect resembles a layer of glass of a greenhouse. The sun still emits radiation into the earth freely, but the reflection of radiation by the Earth's surface is trapped by greenhouse gases earlier. Furthermore, the bottom layer of the earth's atmosphere is slowly but surely, an increase of temperature.
Indeed, the greenhouse effect like this is a natural process that is important to allow for life on earth. Without it, the earth will become a place that could not be inhabited by a majority of living things that exist now. The problem lies in humans that causes the increase of global warming through emissions of greenhouse gases into Earth's atmosphere. This is changing the natural balance of the greenhouse effect. The more greenhouse gases produced, the more solar radiation is "trapped" in a layer of our atmosphere. This phenomenon is now taking place: global warming in the lower layers of the atmosphere because of the increasing accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions.
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