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CHAPTER 2
CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING
‘Environment’1 refers to the sum total of condition, which
surrounds point in
space and time. The scope of the term ‘Environment’ has been
changing and widening
with the passage of time. In the primitive age2, the environment
consisted of only
physical aspects of the earth’s land, air and water as
biological communities. As the
time passed on, human beings extended the environment through
their social,
economic and political activities. Now a day’s environmental
issues are growing in
size and complexity, threatening the survival of mankind on
earth. The key
environmental concerns today are climate change3, global
warming, natural disasters,
and soil and land degradation, loss of biodiversity4, air and
water pollution which
disturbs the balance of the living environment in a big
way.5
‘Climate change’ refers to a statistically significant variation
in either the
mean state of the climate6 or in its variability, persisting for
an extended period
(typically, decades or longer). Climate change may be due to
natural internal
processes or due to persistent anthropogenic7 activities that
brings change in the
1 The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living
things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is
an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living
species. 2 The Primitive Age is the starting age for your
civilization. The Stone Age is a broad prehistoric period during
which stone was widely used to make implements with a sharp edge, a
point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted roughly 3.4
million years, and ended between 6000 BCE and 2000 BCE with the
advent of metalworking. Stone Age artifacts include tools used by
humans and by their predecessor species in the genus Homo. 3
Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the
statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging
from decades to millions of years. Certain human activities have
also been identified as significant causes of recent climate
change, often referred to as “global warming.” The term sometimes
is used to refer specifically to climate change caused by human
activity, as opposed to changes in climate that may have resulted
as part of Earth's natural processes. The most general definition
of climate change is a change in the statistical properties of the
climate system when considered over long periods of time,
regardless of cause. Accordingly, fluctuations over periods shorter
than a few decades, such as El Nino, do not represent climate
change. 4 Biodiversity refers to the variety of life and its
processes. It includes the variety of living organisms, the genetic
differences among them, the communities and ecosystems in which
they occur, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that keep
them functioning, yet ever changing and adapting. 5 Santosh Kumar,
“Environment and development ” Yojana, May 2012, p.14 6 The term
Climate is originated from Ancient Greek term klima, meaning
inclination. Climate is commonly defined as the weather averaged
over a long period of time. The standard averaging period is 30
years, but other periods may be used depending on the purpose.
Climate also includes statistics other than the average, such as
the magnitudes of day-to-day or year-to-year variations.[Glossary
of Metrology- American Metrological Society.] 7 The term
anthropogenic designates an effect or object resulting from human
activity. The term is sometimes used in the context of pollution
emissions that are produced as a result of human activities but
applies broadly to all major human impacts on the environment.
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composition of the atmosphere8. Earth is warming at an unusual
rate and evidence of
warming is present in different forms.9
Climate change is perhaps the most serious environmental
challenge humanity
has ever faced. While the extent of climate change and its
environmental and
economic impacts are subject to debate, it is, nevertheless,
clear that humans are
altering the earth’s climate in profound ways through burning
fossil fuels 10 that
produce carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas, and from activities
such as cutting of
forests and agriculture that produces methane, another
greenhouse gas (GHG).
2.1 The Climate
Climate is the sum total of the Weather11 experienced at a place
in the course
of a year and over the years. It comprises not only those
conditions that can obviously
be described as ‘near average’ or ‘normal’ but also the extremes
and all the
variations. 12 At the simplest level, the weather is what is
happening to the
atmosphere13 at any given time while climate is what would be
expected to occur at
any given time of the year based on statistics built up over
many years. The frequently
changing extreme weather events14 exert a major influence on the
interpretation of
changes in the climate; however, there may be some blurring of
the distinction
between weather and climate in considering specific events.
It follows from the definition of weather and climate; that
changes in the
climate constitute shifts in meteorological conditions lasting a
few years or longer. 8The gaseous envelope surrounding the Earth.
The dry atmosphere consists almost entirely of nitrogen (78.1%
volume mixing ratio) and oxygen (20.9% volume mixing ratio),
together with a number of trace gases, such as argon (0.93% volume
mixing ratio), helium and radiatively active greenhouse gases such
as carbon dioxide (0.035% volume mixing ratio) and ozone. In
addition, the atmosphere contains the greenhouse gas water vapour,
whose amounts are highly variable but typically around 1% volume
mixing ratio. The atmosphere also contains clouds and aerosols. 9
Dr. Deoki Nandan, Vinod Joon, Vaishali Jaiswal, “Global Warming and
the Challenges posed by Climate Change”, World Focus, September
2009, p. 362 10 Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes
such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age
of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically
millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years. 11
Weather is taken to mean the totality of atmospheric conditions at:
any particular place and time - the instantaneous state of the
atmosphere and especially those elements of it which directly
affect living things. Its meaning may be extended to include
exposure to radiation from the sun and to the sky, as permitted by
the state of the atmosphere. 12 H. H. Lamb, Climate: Present, Past
& Future, Vol. 1, London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1972, p. 7.
13 An atmosphere is a layer of gases surrounding a planet or other
material body of sufficient mass that is held in place by the
gravity of the body. 14 Extreme weather includes unusual, severe or
unseasonal weather; weather at the extremes of the historical
distribution—the range that has been seen in the past. The most
commonly used definition of extreme weather is based on an event’s
climatological distribution: Extreme weather occurs only 5% or less
of the time. According to climate scientists and meteorological
researchers, extreme weather events have been rare. Some extreme
weather events have been attributed to human-induced global
warming, with a 2012 studies indicating an increasing threat from
extreme weather.
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19
Those changes may involve a single parameter, such as
temperature or rainfall but
usually accompany more general shifts in weather patterns which
might result in a
shift to stay colder; whether, cloudier and windier conditions.
Because of the
connection with global weather patterns these changes can result
in compensating
shifts in different parts of the world. More often they are,
however, part of an overall
warming or cooling of the global climate. But in terms of
considering the implications
of changes in the climate, it is the regional variations which
provide the most
interesting material as long as they are properly set in the
context of global change.
The climate of a locality is defined by long-term statistics of
the variables of
the state of the atmosphere at that locality. There are local
and regional climates and
planetary or global climate. The regions chosen are generally
the natural geographical
regions of the earth’s surfaces. Short time variations of
meteorological parameters
entail “weather changes” while their long term variations entail
“climate changes”.
The climate may be considered as the sum of a set of weather
types, each of these
types having a characteristic frequency distribution over the
averaging period.15
The behavior of the Earth’s climate is governed by a wide range
of factors all
of which are interlinked in an intricate web of physical
processes. Thus there is need
to define the meaning of climate change because various factors
assume different
significance depending on the timescale under consideration.16
On the broadest scale,
the rate at which energy is received from the sun and the rate
at which it is lost to
space determine the equilibrium temperature and climate of
Earth. This energy is
distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents, and other
mechanisms to affect
the climates of different regions.
The climate has always been changing. On every timescale, since
the Earth
was first formed its surface conditions have fluctuated. Past
changes are etched on the
landscape, have influenced the evolution of all life forms and
are a subtext of our
economic and social history. Current changes are a central part
of the debate about the
consequences of human activities on the global environment,
while the future course
of the climate could exert powerful constraints on economic
development, especially
in developing countries.
The carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 31% since
pre-
15 Inadvertent Climate Modification, Report of the Study of
Man’s Impact on Climate, Sponsored by Mass Achnetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, England: The MIT Press, 1971. 16 William
James Burroughs, Climate Change- A Multidisciplinary Approach,
Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 1-2.
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20
industrial times, causing more heat to be trapped in the lower
atmosphere. There is
evidence to show that - carbon dioxide levels are still
increasing. Human activities
during the last few decades of industrialization and population
growth have polluted
the atmosphere to the extent that it has begun to seriously
affect the climate.17
Factors that can shape climate are called climate forcings or
“forcing
mechanisms.” These include processes such as variations in solar
radiation, variations
in the Earth’s orbit, mountain-building and continental drift
and changes in
greenhouse gas concentrations. Forcing mechanisms can be either
“internal” or
“external”. Internal forcing mechanisms are natural processes
within the climate
system itself (e.g., the thermohaline circulation18). External
forcing mechanisms can
be either natural (e.g., changes in solar output) or
anthropogenic (e.g., increased
emissions of greenhouse gases).19
2.1.1 Natural process of Climate Change
The climate of the earth has never been stable, least of all
during the history
and evolution of the human species. Glacial periods20, globally
have been 4-5°C
cooler than now, and some interglacial have perhaps been 1-2°C
warmer. Changes in
climate were clearly natural in origin (i.e. not related to
human behavior) occurring on
a planet inhabited by primitive societies with far smaller
populations than at present.
The causes are now dominated by human perturbation of the
atmosphere. The
rate of warming already exceeds anything experienced in the last
10000 years and is
set to be more rapid than anything experienced in human history.
And the significance
for humanity is qualitatively different from the previously
given ecological imprint
made by the current and growing, population of 6 billion and
more.21
17 Environmental Studies for Undergraduate Courses, Hyderabad:
Universities Press Pvt. Ltd., pp. 177-178. 18 Large-scale
circulation in the ocean that transforms low-density upper ocean
waters to higher-density intermediate and deep waters and returns
those waters back to the upper ocean. The circulation is
asymmetric, with conversion to dense waters in restricted regions
at high latitudes and the return to the surface involving slow
upwelling and diffusive processes over much larger geographic
regions. The THC is driven by high densities at or near the
surface, caused by cold temperatures and/or high salinities, but
despite its suggestive though common name, is also driven by
mechanical forces such as wind and tides. 19
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change#Precipitation accessed
on 11th Feb. 2013 20 A glacial period (or alternatively glacial or
glaciations) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an
ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances.
Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate
between glacial periods. The last glacial period ended about 15,000
years ago; [1] The Holocene epoch is the current interglacial. 21
Mike Hulme, A Change in the Weather? Coming to Terms with Climate
Change, France Harris, Global Environmental Issue, England: John
Wiley & Sons Ltd., 2004, p. 21.
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21
For most of Earth’s history, the planet has been either very
cold, by our
standards, or very hot. Fifty million years ago there was no ice
on the poles. Over the
last two million years the dominant pattern was the Pleistocene
glacial/interglacial
cycle22, with a period of around 100000 years. Global average
temperatures varied by
5-7°C between glacial and interglacial and average temperature
in some middle and
high latitude regions in the Northern Hemisphere varied by 10 -
15°C. The reason for
the glacial-interglacial cycle23 is believed to be small changes
in summer radiation
receipts, caused by periodic variations in the earth’s orbit.
The earth emerged from the
latest glacial period between 10000 and 15000 years ago: during
the period (since
then the Holocene) there have been a number of significant
events.24
Eighteen thousand years ago there was ice two miles thick in
Scotland and,
because of the size of the ice sheets; the sea level was 130 m
lower. Ice-core studies
show that in some places dramatic changes happened remarkably
swiftly;
temperatures rose by as much as 20° C in a decade. Then, 10,000
years ago, the wild
fluctuations stopped, and the climate settled down to the balmy,
stable state that the
world has enjoyed since then. At about that time, perhaps
coincidentally, perhaps not,
mankind started to progress.25
Global climate varies naturally due to both ‘internal
variability’ within the
climate system changes in ‘external forcing’ unrelated to human
behavior, for
example, changes in solar irradiance and volcanic activity. The
reconstruction of
temperature over the past thousand years suggests, however, that
the warming over
the 20th century is unusual and unlikely to be merely the
response of the system to
natural forcing.
The world has warmed since 1860, when the instrumental record
started.
Warming has continued into the 21st century, and the year 2002
is second only to 22 The glacial period that peaked 21,500 years
ago was only the most recent of five glacial periods in the last
450,000 years. In fact, the Earth system has alternated between
glacial and interglacial regimes for more than two million years, a
period of time known as the Pleistocene. The duration and severity
of the glacial periods increased during this period, with a
particularly sharp change occurring between 900,000 and 600,000
years ago. Earth is currently within the most recent interglacial
period, which started 11,700 years ago and is commonly known as the
Holocene Epoch. 23 Large, continental ice-sheets in the Northern
Hemisphere have grown and retreated many times in the past. Times
with large ice-sheets are known as glacial periods (or ice ages)
and times without large ice-sheets are interglacial periods. The
most recent glacial period occurred between about 120,000 and
11,500 years ago. Since then, the Earth has been in an interglacial
period called the Holocene. Glacial periods are colder, dustier and
generally drier than interglacial periods. These
glacial-interglacial cycles are apparent in many marine and
terrestrial paleoclimate records from around the world. 24 Nigel
Arnell, Global Warming River flows and Water resources, West
Sussex, England: John Wiley & Sons, , 1996, p.7. 25 “The Heat
is On: A special Report on Climate Change”, The Economist, Sept. 9,
2006, p. 9.
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22
1998 for observed global warming, the 1990 is likely to have
been the warmest
decade in the past 1000 years. According to UN meteorologists,
year 2012 has ranked
among the nine warmest since records began more than 160 years
ago, continuing a
trend for the planet that is increasing the dangers of extreme
weather events.
A warming of global climate, of what so ever magnitude will
inevitably alter
the characteristics of weather experienced in all regions and
localities. The climate
system is fully integrated and warming it by 1°C or more will
alter for example; the
distribution of magnitude of precipitation over the earth’s
surface, the frequency,
severity and distribution of storms around the world, and the
nature of thermal
regimes, especially extreme heat and extreme cold. Human
modification of the global
climate will also induce changes in the behavior of natural,
large-scale oscillatory
phenomena in the climate system.26
The exchange of carbon between the atmosphere and the
biosphere27 is a
major factor in the climate system. The natural exchange, which
has been going on for
hundreds of millions of years, is becoming increasingly altered
due to human
activities via land use, changes in land use, and forestry. A
good description of all
these processes is essential in the understanding of the causes
of anthropogenic
climate change.28
2.1.2 Anthropogenic Climate Change
All animals including the Homo sapiens are dependent upon the
environment,
particularly the physical environment, i.e., nature. It is well
known that the earth’s
surface and the environment surrounding it are important to
human health. The
relationship between human health and his environment is a
two-way process. We
improve our living conditions and increase our comforts but the
alterations to the
environment may be harmful to our health. The nature of the
soil, air, water,
temperature, barometric pressure, wind, sunshine, cloud,
rainfall, humidity and
latitude, must all in the last resort have determined man’s
health and welfare.29
Earth’s climate is changing with the global temperature now
rising at a rate
26 Mike Hulme, supra note 21, p. 29. 27 The part of the Earth
system comprising all ecosystems and living organisms, in the
atmosphere, on land (terrestrial biosphere) or in the oceans
(marine biosphere), including derived dead organic matter, such as
litter, soil organic matter and oceanic detritus. 28 Koos Verbeek
and Rik Leemans, ‘Finding Facts for Policy Makers: IPCC’s Special
Reports and the Third Assessment Report’, Change 54, Oct-Nov. 2000,
pp. 2-3. 29 Dr. R. Kumar, Environmental Pollution and Health
Hazards, New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House, 1987, pp. 1-4.
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23
unprecedented in the experience of modern human society.
Although some historical
changes in climate have resulted from natural causes and
variations, the strength of
the trends and the patterns of change that have emerged in
recent decades indicate that
human influences, resulting primarily from increased emissions
of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor.
These climatic
changes are being experienced particularly intensely in the
Arctic region30. The IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change)31 has noted that
“Changes in climate
that have already taken place are manifested in the decrease in
extent and thickness of
Arctic sea ice, permafrost32 thawing, coastal erosion, changes
in ice sheets33 and ice
shelves34, and altered distribution and abundance of
species”.35
Along with world population growth and global economic expansion
over the
past century, intensified human activities, particularly
energy-intensive activities,
have altered the properties of the earth’s atmosphere by
unlocking a vast quantity of
underground fossilized carbon and emitting it into the
atmosphere in the form of CO2,
Other greenhouse gases such as methane, nitrous oxide and a
variety of halocarbons
have also been injected into the atmosphere by humans, and land
cover changes have
impaired the capacity of parts of the biosphere to sequester
atmospheric carbon into
living biomass36. This has altered the functioning of the global
climate system37.
30 The Arctic is a polar region located at the northernmost part
of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of
Canada, Russia, the United States (Alaska), Denmark (Greenland),
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of
a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost. 31The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the
international body for assessing the science related to climate
change. The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific
basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options
for adaptation and mitigation. 32 Ground (soil or rock and included
ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least
two consecutive years. 33 A mass of land ice that is sufficiently
deep to cover most of the underlying bedrock topography, so that
its shape is mainly determined by its dynamics (the flow of the ice
as it deforms internally and/or slides at its base). An ice sheet
flows outward from a high central ice plateau with a small average
surface slope. The margins usually slope more steeply, and most ice
is discharged through fast-flowing ice streams or outlet glaciers,
in some cases into the sea or into ice shelves floating on the sea.
There are only three large ice sheets in the modern world, one on
Greenland and two on Antarctica, the East and West Antarctic Ice
Sheets, divided by the Trans-Antarctic Mountains. During glacial
periods there were others. 34 A floating slab of ice of
considerable thickness extending from the coast (usually of great
horizontal extent with a level or gently sloping surface), often
filling embayment in the coastline of the ice sheets. Nearly all
ice shelves are in Antarctica, where most of the ice discharged
seaward flows into ice shelves. 35 Robert W. Corell, ‘Challenges of
Climate Change: An Arctic Perspective’, Ambio, Vol. 35, No. 4, ‘The
Royal Colloquium: Arctic under Stress: A Thawing Tundra’, June
2006, p. 148 36 The total mass of living organisms in a given area
or volume; dead plant material can be included as dead biomass.
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According to the assessment report of the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate
Change, the earth’s climate system has demonstrably changed on
both global and
regional scales since the pre-industrial era, with at least some
of these changes clearly
attributable to human behavior.38
Studies consistently find evidence of an anthropogenic signal in
the climate
record of last 35-50 years, despite uncertainties in forcing due
to anthropogenic
aerosols39 and natural factors. Recent climate-model40
experiments show that natural
causes of global temperature variability cannot, on their own,
explain the observed
surface warming of about 0.6°C. On the other hand, when these
experiments are
repeated using rising historic concentrations of greenhouse
gases and shifting
distributions of sulphate aerosols, much better agreement
between observed and
modeled global patterns of temperature change is achieved.
Hence, the IPCC Third
Assessment Report concluded that: “there is new and stronger
evidence that most of
the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to
human activities”.41
The theory that certain human activities contribute to warming
of the earth’s
atmosphere which will bring about changes in the world climate
having serious long-
term physical, biological, economic and social consequences, has
been put forward by
climatologists for over 100 years. It is only recently, however,
that some scientists
specializing in the great variety of aspects involved in
climatic studies began to evince
serious concern that the warming process was so far underway,
following the 37 The climate system is the highly complex system
consisting of five major components: the atmosphere, the
hydrosphere, the cryosphere, the land surface and the biosphere,
and the interactions between them. The climate system evolves in
time under the influence of its own internal dynamics and because
of external forcings such as volcanic eruptions, solar variations
and anthropogenic forcings such as the changing composition of the
atmosphere and land use change. 38 Mike Hulme, supra note 21, pp.
24-25. 39A collection of airborne solid or liquid particles, with a
typical size between 0.01 and 10 μm that reside in the atmosphere
for at least several hours. Aerosols may be of either natural or
anthropogenic origin. Aerosols may influence climate in several
ways: directly through scattering and absorbing radiation, and
indirectly by acting as cloud condensation nuclei or modifying the
optical properties and lifetime of clouds. 40 Climate model
(spectrum or hierarchy) is a numerical representation of the
climate system based on the physical, chemical and biological
properties of its components, their interactions and feedback
processes, and accounting for all or some of its known properties.
The climate system can be represented by models of varying
complexity, that is, for any one component or combination of
components a spectrum or hierarchy of models can be identified,
differing in such aspects as the number of spatial dimensions, the
extent to which physical, chemical or biological processes are
explicitly represented, or the level at which empirical
parametrizations are involved. Coupled Atmosphere-Ocean General
Circulation Models (AOGCMs) provide a representation of the climate
system that is near the most comprehensive end of the spectrum
currently available. There is an evolution towards more complex
models with interactive chemistry and biology. Climate models are
applied as a research tool to study and simulate the climate, and
for operational purposes, including monthly, seasonal and inter
annual climate predictions. 41 Mike Hulme, supra note 21, p.
26.
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dramatic growth in world population, industrialization and other
factors, that dire
consequences for humankind might already be irreversible.
Scientific rather than legal
studies have thus dominated research in this field to
date.42
“Climate change” means a change of climate which is attributed
directly or
indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the
global atmosphere and
which is in addition to natural climate variability observed
over comparable time
periods.43
2.2 Global Warming
Global warming, an important aspect of climate change is
primarily a
consequence of accumulation of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. Climate change
is the general term for any persistent change in climate,
occurring over decades.
Global warming is one particular type of climate change. 44 The
term “global
warming” is a specific case of the more general term “climate
change” (which can
also refer to “global cooling”, such as occurs during ice ages).
In principle, “global
warming” is neutral as to the causes, but in common usage,
“global warming”
generally implies a human influence.45
‘Global warming’ means increase in the temperature of the earth
and
according to various reports, the global average near surface
temperature has
increased by about 0.5°C over the past 100 years. Scientists
believe that this global
warming trend is resulted from the enhanced greenhouse effect.
46 The earth’s
atmosphere alone is being barraged by the effects of almost
every human activity
imaginable; from our diets and farming practices to the way we
heat and energize our
homes, travel, work and recreate. Projected increase in
atmospheric concentrations of
anthropogenic GHGs could have an adverse impact on the earth’s
temperatures.47
Global warming became one of the biggest scientific issues
during the 1980s.
It has continued to attract scientific attention and also
political and public concern.
Global warming is the name given to the possible climatic effect
of an increasing
42 Patricia Birnie, International Environmental Law and Global
Climate Change, 1st edn, London: Graham & Trotman Publishers
Group, 1991, p. 1. 43 UNFCC Article 1(2). 44 Nigel Arnell, supra
note 24, p. 1. 45 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/global_warming
accessed on 12th May, 2012. 46 Dr. Sukanta K. Nanda, Environmental
Law, 1st edition, Allahabad: Central Law Publications, 2007, p.
324. 47 R. Ramachandran, ‘The Play of Environmental Politics’, the
ICFAI Journal of Environment Law, Vol. 11, Jan. 2003.
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26
concentration of “greenhouse” gases, primarily carbon dioxide,
methane and nitrous
oxide. In the most general terms, these gases are transparent to
incoming short-wave
radiation, but they block outgoing long-wave radiation, leading
to an increase in both
surface radiation and surface temperature. These increases in
turn, it is hypothesized,
lead to changes in climate.
The first speculation that a greenhouse effect might occur was
by the Swedish
chemist Svante Arrhenius in 1897, although it did not become a
topic of popular
debate until some 90 years later. Concentrations of the
greenhouse gases are so named
because they act like the panes of glass in a greenhouse and
have been increasing as a
result of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels,
deforestation48, the
application of fertilizers and the growth of particular types of
agricultural production.
Water vapor is also a greenhouse gas: although its concentration
in the atmosphere is
not directly affected by human activity, it does increase with
temperature, and
therefore tends to reinforce the effect of the other greenhouse
gases.49
The increased amounts of CO2 and other GHGs are the primary
causes of the
human-induced component of global warming. They are released by
the burning of
fossil fuels, land clearing and agriculture, etc., leading to an
increase in the
greenhouse effect.
2.2.1 The Green House Effect
Certain gases in the atmosphere have similar properties to panes
of glass in a
greenhouse: they freely let in the sun’s radiation but allow
little heat to escape from
the earth. These gases are called greenhouse gases and their
effect is known as the
greenhouse effect. The ‘green house effect’ is a natural feature
of our atmosphere and
is the basis for identifying and reducing emissions of gases
that contribute to an
increased greenhouse effect. Without it, the average temperature
at the earth’s surface
would be -18°C. The earth’s climate is driven by solar
radiation50. In the long term the
energy absorbed from the sun must be balanced by outgoing
radiation from the earth
and the atmosphere. Part of this outgoing energy is absorbed and
re-emitted by radio-
active atmospheric gases (‘greenhouse gases’), thereby reducing
net emission of
48 Conversion of forest to non-forest. For a discussion of the
term forest and related terms such as afforestation, reforestation,
and deforestation see the IPCC Special Report on Land Use, Land-Use
Change and Forestry. 49 Nigel Arnell, supra note 24, p. 1. 50
Electromagnetic radiation emitted by the Sun. It is also referred
to as shortwave radiation. Solar radiation has a distinctive range
of wavelengths (spectrum) determined by the temperature of the Sun,
peaking in visible wavelengths.
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27
energy to space. To maintain the global energy balances, both
the atmosphere and the
surface will warm until the outgoing energy equals the incoming
energy. This is the
greenhouse effect.51
The greenhouse effect is perfectly natural and has always
existed since the
earth took its present form: indeed without it, the earth would
be very much colder
and subject to violent fluctuations in temperature so that it
would be uninhabitable.
More recently, the term greenhouse effect has taken on a new
shade of meaning to
refer to an increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere from
man-made emissions,
which is leading to more of the sun’s heat being trapped and the
earth becoming
warmer.52
Human activities are substantially increasing atmospheric
concentrations of
greenhouse gases. Human-made, or anthropogenic, emissions of
green house gases
will enhance the green house effect, resulting on average in an
additional warming of
the earth’s surface, or “global warming”. This prospect is what
is meant by the term
“climate change”.
The concentration of GHGs in the atmosphere has increased
significantly over
the last 200 years. The importance of individual greenhouse
gases depends not only
on their concentration, but also on how effectively they trap
heat and how long they
remain in the atmosphere.53 A number of anthropogenic greenhouse
gases contribute
significantly to climate change, even though none is present in
the atmosphere at
anything approaching the concentration of carbon dioxide. Thus
the greenhouse effect
caused by the difference in absorption rates of long-and
short-wave radiation makes
the earth far hotter than it would otherwise be. The general
consensus is that the earth
is 33°C warmer than it would be without the natural greenhouse
effect that is with the
51 P C. Sinha, Global Warming, International Encyclopedia of
Sustainable Development Series, I Edition, New Delhi: Anmol
Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1998, p.1. 52 Robin Churchill, Controlling
Emissions of Greenhouse Gases, 1st edition, Boston: Graham &
Trortman, 1991, pp. 147-148. 53 Ninety-nine percent of the
atmosphere is nitrogen and oxygen; however these gases do not
affect radiation or the heat energy passing through them. It is the
remaining one percent that reflects, absorb and re-emit both solar
radiation (incoming) and global heat energy (outgoing).
The earth itself reflects back 6% of the solar energy that
reaches it, of the total energy entering the atmosphere. 31% is
reflected back by clouds, aerosols and the earth. 23% is absorbed
by the atmosphere and 46% heats the earth itself. The earth then
releases some of the heat it has absorbed but at the lower
wavelength of infrared radiation.
Certain absorbing gases, while transparent to incoming sunlight,
absorb the infrared energy directed back from the earth. They
radiate this energy in all directions. The top layer eventually
transmits energy directly to space. However, the gases effectively
trap the infrared radiation around the earth. This is called the
greenhouse effect and the gases that cause it, the greenhouse
gases. They include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, ozone and
nitrous oxide.
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28
mixture of gases in the atmosphere that existed before the
industrial revolution.54
Many of the GHGs (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide) are
produced by
both natural and anthropogenic processes, and there are natural
mechanisms that
remove significant amounts of GHGs from the atmosphere. However,
anthropogenic
emissions have increased the total concentration of GHGs beyond
the Earth’s natural
capacity to remove these gases from the atmosphere. Of these
GHGs, carbon dioxide
is the most abundant in the Earth’s atmosphere due to burning
fossil fuels. CO2 is the
most recalcitrant of the GHGs, since it does not decompose
easily in the atmosphere
(taking anywhere from 50-200 years to decompose). This means
that a significant
decrease in atmospheric CO2 levels will not be realized for many
years after
anthropogenic CO2 emissions drop. Incidentally, the US has
ranked first in the world
for CO2 emissions for several decades and has been responsible
for about 24% of the
total world CO2 emissions for the past decade and is projected
to hover between 23%
and 24% until 2025.
The most important GHG is water vapor.55 However, because the
amount of
water vapor is determined by internal mechanisms within the
climate system and
because the remaining greenhouse gases are largely imposed on
the climate system by
external influences mainly resulting from man’s activities,
international concern to
combat the greenhouse effect has discounted water vapor and
focused instead on the
other greenhouse gases. These gases are principally carbon
dioxide (CO2)56, methane
(CH4)57, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)58, ozone (O3)
59 and nitrous oxide60 (N2O). Of
54 Paul Brown, Global Warming (Can Civilization Survive), 1st
edition, Hyderabad: University Press India Ltd., 1999, pp. 50-51.
55 Water vapor does not directly affect the greenhouse gas content.
However, warm air can hold more moisture. As higher temperatures
increase evaporation, the water vapor content of the atmosphere
will increase; will form more clouds that will decrease the amount
of solar warming felt on earth’s surface, offsetting the addition
effect. 56 The power generation industry’s products of combustion
from burning coal or natural gas fuel will then be a major
contributor to the greenhouse effect. For every ton of carbon
burnt, 3.7 tons of CO2 is produced. If combustion is incomplete,
soot (carbon particles) is released to the atmosphere just the
burning of fossil fuels added 6.2 billion tons of carbon or 23
billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere annually. Current
fossil fuel burning adds about 22 billion tons of CO2 to the
atmosphere annually. Global deforestation and organic decay also
add to atmospheric CO2. Carbon dioxide resulting from human use
produces about 5% the amount produced by nature. The concentrations
would be greater, but about half of the carbon dioxide due to human
activities finds its way back into the natural carbon cycle. 57
Organic material decay in the absence of oxygen produces methane.
Concentrations grow at 0.7% annually and are already 100% higher
than pre-industrial values. Swamp and wetlands are primary source.
Rotting garbage, industrial processes and fossil fuel extraction
are other sources. The digestive processes of certain insects and
domestic animals, such as sheep and cattle, produce methane as a
by-product. While natural wetlands, like the Florida Everglades are
considered a Shrinking wilderness, rice paddy fields are on the
sharp increase.
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29
these gases carbon dioxide is thought currently to account for
about 50% of the
greenhouse effect, methane for 18%, CFCs for 14%, ozone for 12%
and nitrous oxide
for 6%. According to the IPCC, approximately 75% of the
atmospheric CO2
stemming from human activity (world-wide) over the past 20 years
is due to burning
fossil fuel, and the other 25% is largely due to changes in
land-use, mainly
deforestation. Due to an increase in atmospheric concentrations
of CO2, “the globally
averaged surface temperatures have increased by 0.6 to 2 o C
over the 20th century.”61
2.2.2 Comparing the greenhouse gases
By sheer volume, carbon dioxide, produced principally by the
combustion of
fossil fuels, is the most important of greenhouse gases. It is
responsible for about 50%
of the global warming problem. CFCs, however, also contribute to
at least 15% of the
global warming. This is because the greenhouse effect of these
compounds per
molecule, relative to carbon dioxide, equals several hundred to
20,000, depending on
the compound. That effect is compounded by the fact that their
lifetime is 100 years
or more. Moreover, CFCs deplete the earth’s ozone layer. Other
greenhouse gases
such as nitrous oxides (NO), sulphur dioxides (SO2), methane
(CH4) and ozone (O3),
Atmospheric methane concentration therefore is increasing on a
net basis and probably will
continue to, given current global trends. 58 Halocarbons:
Halocarbons are compounds that contain chlorine, fluorine and
bromine. The best know halocarbons are chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs),
which have been extensively used as spray, can propellants,
refrigerants solvents and foaming agents. Halons used as fire
extinguishers also contribute to this group. Molecules for
molecule, halocarbons are the worst greenhouse gases around.
Extremely stable, the halocarbons can stay in atmospheric
suspension for centuries, until they reach the upper atmosphere and
are broken down by ultraviolet radiation. This in turn releases
chlorine and or bromine and this depletes the ozone layer by these
elements combining with it. 59 Many contradictory factors feature
in the part ozone plays in global warming. In the stratosphere,
ozone is produced from oxygen directly, in the presence of
sunlight. Some of this ozone finds its way down to the troposphere
(10 to 15 kilometers from the earth’s surface) where it stays.
Ozone acts as a protection against the detrimental effect of
ultra violet radiation from the sun, as well as retains some of the
sun’s heat in the upper atmosphere. Ozone is the only trace gas
that significantly affects the sun’s energy transmission; the other
trace gases do not. Small droplets and particles that remain
suspended in the atmosphere for long periods of time are called
aerosols. They include carbon soot and sulphur oxides from
combustion, sulphuric acid from volcano eruptions, dust and salt
from spray. About 8% of incoming solar radiation is reflected back
to the atmosphere by aerosols. With ozone they absorb and retain
19% of the incoming solar energy.
In the last hundred years ozone production occurs nearer the
earth’s surface as a result of reactions with nitrogen oxides,
carbon monoxide, and other gaseous pollutants in the presence of
sunlight. Ozone concentrations have increased by as much as 50% in
many industrialized areas of the northern hemisphere where industry
is heaviest. They have also inexplicably decreased in industrial
areas. CFCs have decreased ozone in the stratosphere which may
balance ozone increases in the troposphere. The net effect on
global warming is difficult to predict. 60 Nitrous Oxide is a
colorless gas with a sweet odour. Main sources of nitrous oxide
emissions are nylon and nitric acid production, cars with catalytic
converters, the use of fertilizers in agriculture and burning of
organic matter. 61 Denis G. Arnold and Keith Bustos, “Business,
Ethics, and Global Climate Change”, Business & Professional
Ethics Journal, Vol. 24, No. 1/2, The Roots of the Obligation of
Business to Preserve the Environment (Spring/Summer 2005), p.
105.
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30
the cause of acid rain62 and of smog63 in the cities, also,
result from the production
and use of fossil fuels.64
Although carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas, the other
gases are more
effective in trapping heat. One molecule of methane traps about
21 times more heat
than one molecule of carbon dioxide. The other gases are even
more effective: nitrous
oxide is 150 times, ozone 2,000 times and CFCs 10.000 times more
effective. These
gases also last longer in the atmosphere: methane lasts for
about 10 years, CFCs for
70-110 years and nitrous oxide for 170 years. The long-lasting
effect of these gases in
the atmosphere is particularly significant, because it means
that whatever steps are
taken now and in the near future to reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases will not
reduce concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for
several decades.
Merely to maintain concentrations of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere at current
levels would, according to the IPCC, require immediate
reductions in the emissions of
the longer-lasting gases of over 60 percent.65
If we compare a molecule of all the GHGs, the CO2 molecule will
have the
least contribution to the greenhouse effect. If we call CO2 a
‘baseline’, methane has an
effect of about 21 times greater. Nitrous oxides effect is 206
times greater and CFCs
have an effect 15000 times greater. By total weight, CO2
emissions are the heaviest.
Methane emissions are 1% of CO2’s and that of the other gases
are still lower.
There are also the indirect effects of gases on each other.
Methane for
instance, reacts with OH molecules to produce CO2 and water. If
the atmospheric OH
concentration is reduced, methane will have a longer life. When
CFC molecules
deplete ozone, they thus contribute to cooling as well as
warming effects.
62 Acid rain is a rain or any other form of precipitation that
is unusually acidic, meaning that it possesses elevated levels of
hydrogen ions. It can have harmful effects on plants, aquatic
animals and infrastructure. 63 Smog is a type of air pollutant. The
word “smog” was made in the early 20th century as a portmanteau of
the words smoke and fog to refer to smoky fog. The word was then
intended to refer to what was sometimes known as pea soup fog, a
familiar and serious problem in London from the 19th century to the
mid 20th century. This kind of smog is caused by the burning of
large amounts of coal within a city; this smog contains soot
particulates from smoke, sulfur dioxide and other components.
Modern smog, as found for example in Los Angeles, is a type of air
pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion
engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with
sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the
primary emissions to form photochemical smog. The atmospheric
pollution levels of Los Angeles, Mexico City and other cities are
increased by inversion that traps pollution close to the ground. It
is usually highly toxic to humans and can cause severe sickness,
shortened life or death. 64 UN’s conference on Trade and
development Programme on Traminatinal Corporations investment
Series No 4, ‘Environmental Management in Transnational
Corporations Report on the Benchmark Corporate Environmental
Survey’, US, New York, 1993, pp. 101 -102. 65 Robin Churchill,
supra note 52, p. 148.
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31
Carbon dioxide’s contribution to global warming for the past ten
years is about
2 to 3 times that of methane’s and 15 times that of nitrous
oxides. In terms of
percentage volume, CO2 makes up 70% of the GHGs, methane 27%,
nitrous oxide 3%
and the halocarbons66 occur in traces. Increases in GHG
concentrations alter the
energy budget in the lower atmosphere, resulting in higher
temperatures, which in
turn mean changes in global and regional climate patterns.67
2.3 Factors responsible for Global Warming
The entire environmental issue is linked with other issues such
as population,
technology, economics, and those of a political, humanitarian
and social nature. Some
of the major factors arising from human development and
resulting in the change in
the global climate system are the driving forces such as
population and life style
which in turn includes technological development and social,
political, and economic
approaches to living. These driving forces have effects, in
terms of GHG emissions,
on both the natural environment and on the part of the
environment that directly
supports human life.68
There are many greenhouse gases, produced by many human
activities. Some
are also emitted in large quantities from natural resources.
Nevertheless, it is clear that
industrial activity including manufacturing industry; energy
production and supply,
transport and construction play a major role in climate change,
there are other factors
directly or indirectly responsible too.
2.3.1 Population
A number of causes are responsible for the environmental
degradation. The
most important cause, however, is growth of population and
resultant rise in poverty.
Besides economic development, urbanization, industrialization,
availability of natural
66Halocarbons are best known as destroyers of ozone; however
many are also powerful greenhouse gases. Under the Montreal
Protocol, emissions of halocarbons are tightly controlled and
concentrations of many dual ‘ozone depleting and global warming
inducing’ gases are now beginning to decline. Halocarbon is a
collective term for the group of partially halogenated organic
species, including the chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs),
hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs),
halons, methyl chloride, methyl bromide, etc. Many of the
halocarbons have large Global Warming Potentials. The chlorine and
bromine containing halocarbons are also involved in the depletion
of the ozone layer. Most of the halocarbons encountered in everyday
life – solvents, medicines, plastics are man-made. The synthesis of
halocarbons in the early 1800s but accelerated when their useful
properties as solvents and anesthetics were discovered. The
development of plastics and synthetic elastomers led to greatly
expanded scale of production. A substantial percentage of drugs are
halocarbons. 67 Nigel Arnell, supra note 24, p. 14. 68 Bo R. Doos,
Environmental issues requiring International Action, Environmental
protection and International Law, edited by W. Lang, H Neuhold, K
Zemanek, London: Graham and Trotman, 1995, p. 51.
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32
resources, and the lifestyle of its people also effect the
environment.
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)69 International has observed: The
population
explosion, sustained by human science and technology, is causing
almost insoluble
problems for future generations. It is responsible for the
degradation of the
environment through the pollution of the air and water; it is
consuming essential as
well as non-essential resources at a rate that cannot be
sustained. Above all, it is
condemning thousands of our fellow living organisms to
extinction.70
Degradation of the world’s environment, income and equality, and
potential
for conflict exist today because of over-consumption and
over-population. If the
unprecedented population growth continues, future generations of
children will not
have adequate food, housing, medical care, education, earth
resources and
employment opportunities. Humankind cannot continue to grow
indefinitely. We are
now adding more people to the world’s population every decade
than we used to add
in a century.71
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)72 has warned,
throughout
the world, there is copious evidence that the carrying capacity
of many life support
systems is being overloaded to the breaking point. Where such
systems have
collapsed, the option for the poor is starve: either to flee or
to stay put and starve.”
Even before this, however, demographic pressures will likely
cause large-scale
migration and urbanization, and tax the ability of many
countries to provide political
stability. Among the world’s 120 governments studied for
political instability, the 31
countries rated the most unstable all had high rates of
population growth.
Urbanization73 will aggravate all the problems caused by
overpopulation. The key
69 The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international
non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the
conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly
named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in
Canada and the United States. It is the world's largest independent
conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide,
working in more than 100 countries, supporting around 1,300
conservation and environmental projects. WWF is a foundation, in
2010 deriving 57% of funding from individuals and bequests, 17%
from government sources (such as the World Bank, DFID, USAID) and
11% from corporations. 70 Richard D. Lamm, The Future of the
Environment, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science, Vol. 522, The Future: Trends into the Twenty-First Century
(Jul., 1992), pp. 59-66. 71 Ibid. 72 UNEP, established in 1972, is
the voice for the environment within the United Nations system.
UNEP acts as a catalyst, advocate, educator and facilitator to
promote the wise use and sustainable development of the global
environment. 73 Urbanization refers to the increasing number of
people that live in urban areas. It predominantly results in the
physical growth of urban areas, be it horizontal or vertical. The
United Nations projected that half of the world's population would
live in urban areas at the end of 2008. By 2050 it is predicted
that 64.1% and 85.9% of the developing and developed world
respectively will be urbanized. So the
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33
factor of this scenario is the inability to change reproductive
habits in time to avoid
overtaxing an area’s carrying capacity.
As the population grows, its direct impact on natural
surroundings becomes
apparent in various ways. Housing, sub-division of land, cutting
of trees, etc., put
biotic pressure on natural environment. For food, it is required
to generate more
agricultural products by either destroying forests to use the
land for cultivation or
using more fertilizers and pesticides for more production
leading to various
environmental problems and specially affecting the earth’s
climate system.
2.3.2 Industrialization
All industrial activities involve some energy consumption, but
there are large
differences in energy consumption between industrial sectors,
depending on their
energy intensity and the sole of production. Economic and
population growth have
proceeded much faster, with the result that over all energy use
has increased. This, in
turn, means that the pattern of the energy used is the main
determining factor carbon
dioxide emissions; especially since world energy demand is
largely met by burning
fossil fuels. Use of commercial energy is ubiquitous in
developed countries. Released
enormously, global energy demand has multiplied merely 18 times
in this century and
that developed countries are the main energy users.74
Industrial Activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels,
accounts for most
of the exponential increase in emissions that has occurred since
1860. It is estimated
that, over the period 1980-1989, fossil fuel burning released
5.4 billion tonnes of
carbon per year, while deforestation, the other main
anthropogenic source of carbon
dioxide, led to emission about 1.6 billion tones. The growth of
commercial energy use
is closely related to the growth of industry. The continued
upward trend in carbon
dioxide emissions is not the only challenge to be faced if
harmful climate change is to
be avoided. There are a number of other significant
anthropogenic greenhouse gases,
many of them emitted substantially as a result of industrial
activity.
Industry is responsible for a significant proportion of
anthropogenic methane
emissions, most human made methane is emitted by agriculture a
biomass burning,
but about one third is thought to come from gas drilling and
transmission, waste
landfills and coal mining. Methane is the major component of
natural gas, so leaks
term urbanization can represent the level of urban development
relative to overall population, or it can represent the rate at
which the urban proportion is increasing. 74 ‘The Greenhouse
Effect; Facts and Figures’, UNEP, Industry and Environment,
Jan-Mar. 1994, p. 6.
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34
and deliberate venting of gas inevitably lead to emissions;
methane is emitted from
waste landfills as a result of anaerobic decay of organic
wastes.
Industrial activity is also an important cause of emissions of
several more
minor, but still important, greenhouse gases. Fossil fuel
combustion leads to
emissions of nitrous oxide and almost all anthropogenic nitrogen
oxides are produced
by fossil fuel burning, with a small amount also from
agricultural activities such as
biomass burning. Some industrial process, particularly the
manufacture of nylon also
emits nitrous oxide. In countries with significant nylon
manufacturing industries, this
can be the largest single source of nitrous oxide emissions. The
power generation
industry will add considerably to the CO2 content as the demand
for fossil fuel
burning power plants is realized in the developing world.75
Anthropogenic carbon monoxide (CO) emissions derive from
incomplete
combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. Non-methane hydrocarbons
(volatile organic
compounds) are produced anthropogenically by biomass and fossil
fuel burning and
the use of solvent. All these pollutants react with sunlight in
the atmosphere to
produce tropospheric Ozone (O3), another important GHG thereby
aggravating
climate change. 76
2.3.3 Deforestation
Deforestation is also considered a major contributor to global
warming. This
problem is linked to those of land tenure and availability. The
causes of deforestation
include population pressure for agricultural land, the demand
for industrial timber
production and export, and inappropriate government policies
regarding land tenure,
economic incentives, forest settlement, and other population
Issues.77
Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are
moist, but without
protection from sun-blocking tree cover they quickly dry out.
Trees also help
perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into
the atmosphere.
Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can
quickly become barren
deserts. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its
canopy, which blocks the
sun’s rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This
disruption leads to more
75 Claires M Soares, Environmental Technology & Economics”,
London: Butterworths, 1999, p. 349 76 Ibid, p. 8. 77 P. R. Trivedi,
K Chery Sudharshan, “Global Climate Change: An Internal
Perspective”, World Environmental Science Series-4, New Delhi:
Common Wealth Publications, 1995, p. 53.
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35
extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and
animals.78
It is believed that carbon dioxide once made up the majority of
the
atmosphere. Because these gases trapped so much of the sun’s
heat the earth was a
very warm place. It began to change when plants; or tiny specks
of living things, used
the carbon dioxide and the energy in sunlight together with the
minerals and the,
nitrogen to grow. They discharged oxygen back into the air as a
waste product.79
Over billions of years they evolved and grew into larger plants.
All the time
they were taking CO2 out of the atmosphere, turning it into
carbon and using it to
build leaves and stems. Thus they fixed the carbon in masses of
vegetation that in turn
became vast jungles that sunk back into the swamps. 80 Thus
green leaves and
vegetation play a critical role in climate change.
During photosynthesis 81 , plants use CO2 and give out oxygen,
thereby
reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide. It is said that a big tree
uses 1.75 tonnes of
carbon dioxide and releases 2.25 tonnes of oxygen per hour. Land
plants create a huge
carbon “sink”82 as they suck carbon dioxide out of the air to
build leaves, wood, and
roots. The sink various from year to year, but on an average, it
soaks up one-quarter
of the annual CO2 emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.83
If the atmosphere had
not changed because of plants and had remained heavily laced
with carbon dioxide, it
is estimated that the world would be 45°C (113°F) hotter than it
is now.84
Today, one of the primary drivers of deforestation is the
conversion of forests
into agricultural land to feed the world’s growing population.
About 50% of today’s
agricultural land has been converted from forest areas in the
last 100 years.85
78
http://environment.nationalgeographic.co.in/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/
accessed on 21st Dec. 2013. 79 Paul Brown, supra note 54, p. 54. 80
David W. Lawlor, Photosynthesis, 3rd edn, New Delhi: Viva Book Pvt.
Ltd., 2001, p. 355. 81 The process by which plants take carbon
dioxide from the air (or bicarbonate in water) to build
carbohydrates, releasing oxygen in the process. There are several
pathways of photosynthesis with different responses to atmospheric
carbon dioxide concentrations. C3 plants: Plants that produce a
three-carbon compound during photosynthesis, including most trees
and agricultural crops such as rice, wheat, soybeans, potatoes and
vegetables. C4 plants: Plants that produce a four-carbon compound
during photosynthesis, mainly of tropical origin, including grasses
and the agriculturally important crops maize, sugar cane, millet
and sorghum. 82 A carbon sink is a natural or artificial reservoir
that accumulates and stores some carbon-containing chemical
compound for an indefinite period. The process by which carbon
sinks remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere is known as
carbon sequestration. Public awareness of the significance of CO2
sinks has grown since passage of the Kyoto Protocol, which promotes
their use as a form of carbon offset. 83 ‘That sinking feeling’,
Deccan Herald, May 7, 2013, Spectrum supplement, p. 4. 84 Paul
Brown, supra note 54, pp. 54-55 85 ‘Where have all the trees
gone?’, Deccan Herald, May 7, 2013, Spectrum supplement, p. 4.
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36
Forests, which store 20-100 times more carbon per unit area than
croplands,
play a critical role in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Each year
at least 11.3 million (and
perhaps as high as 15 million) hectares of forest are cleared in
the tropics. The rate of
deforestations combined with the exalting growth in demand for
forest products is
such that while 33 tropical countries are currently net
exporters of wood products, this
may decline to fewer than 10 by the end of the century. If this
trend could be halted
and reversed, tropical forests could serve as a vast carbon
sink, reducing CO2 levels.
Deforestation has killed hundreds of thousands of species by
taking away the
habitat that those species are living in and are adapted to.
When trees grow, they take
in CO2 because they need it make the carbohydrates, fat and
proteins that are used to
make up the tree. But when trees decompose after they have been
cut down, they
release that CO2 back into the atmosphere (increasing the
greenhouse effect and thus
accelerating global warming).86
The world is losing its natural forests. So much so that
deforestation
contributes more to global carbon emissions every year than the
transport sector. Yet
trees are a natural environmental power house. The oxygen they
produce removes air
pollution, lowers temperatures and adds moisture to the air. By
holding soil in place
and reducing run-off from streams, they prevent soil erosion,
control avalanches and
mitigate desertification. 87 With forests storing 283 gigatonnes
of carbon in their
biomass alone, curbing deforestation and re-planting trees – is
a highly effective way
to reduce carbon emissions.88
Loss of tropical rain forests in the Amazon basin, Central
Africa, Indonesia
and other parts of the world has been a pressing environmental
issue for two decades,
but the debate has been framed largely in two ways. First, that
the loss of the forests
accelerates worldwide climate change by removing a large carbon
sink that absorbs
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Second, that the
deforestation destroys the
86 Dr. S. C. Deb, Environmental Management, Mumbai: Jaico
Publishing House, 2003, p. 113. 87 Land degradation in arid,
semi-arid and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors,
including climatic variations and human activities. The United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification defines land
degradation as a reduction or loss in arid, semi-arid, and dry
sub-humid areas, of the biological or economic productivity and
complexity of rain-fed cropland, irrigated cropland, or range,
pasture, forest, and woodlands resulting from land uses or from a
process or combination of processes, including processes arising
from human activities and habitation patterns, such as (i) soil
erosion caused by wind and/or water; (ii) deterioration of the
physical, chemical and biological or economic properties of soil;
and (iii) long-term loss of natural vegetation. 88 Emma Back and
Catherine Cameron of Agulhas: Applied Knowledge; Our climate, our
children, our responsibility; the implications of climate change
for the world’s children; report written for UNICEF UK. p. 32.
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37
livelihoods of indigenous communities.89
Loss of forests has the biggest effect on the rural poor, for
whom forests serve
as “safety nets.” They contribute to poverty reduction and
sustainable livelihoods by
providing food, wood fuel, medicines and non-wood products used
in the house-holds
of millions of the world’s poorest people or sold in traditional
or informal sector
markets. The UN report expresses its concern that deforestation
poses a serious threat
to environmental sustainability90 and is jeopardizing progress
towards poverty and
hunger eradication.91 On a local and regional scale
deforestation will cause a wide
range of environmental damage in addition to the rapid loss of
an economically
valuable natural resource like increased erosion of soils, a
reduction of the capacity of
the soils to hold water, resulting in increased frequency and
severity of floods and a
change of the regional climate.
2.3.4 Desertification
Desertification is a widespread environmental problem that
directly affects
over 100 countries on all the inhabited continents. It occurs
when productive land in
arid92, semi-arid, or sub-humid dry land regions is degraded by
human activities and
by climate variations such as prolonged drought. Dry lands cover
around one-third of
the world’s land surface and are inhabited by more than
one-sixth of its population.
Every year the world’s population increases by 90 million; and
every year 25
billion tons of top soil is lost. The expansion of deserts is
linked to the destruction of
forests. Globally we are in the process of skinning the planet
alive. Forty years ago,
Ethiopia had a 30% forest cover; 12 years ago, it was down to
4%; today, it may be
1%. Seventy-five years ago, India’s forests covered over half
the country; today, they
are down to 14%. In 1961, Thailand’s forests covered 53% of the
country; twenty-five
89 ‘Deforestation to hit hydroelectric projects’, Deccan Herald,
May 28, 2013, Spectrum , p. 4. 90 Environmental sustainability
involves making decisions and taking action that are in the
interests of protecting the natural world, with particular emphasis
on preserving the capability of the environment to support human
life. Environmental sustainability forces businesses to look beyond
making short term gains and look at the long term impact they are
having on the natural world. You need to consider not only the
immediate impact your actions have on the environment, but the long
term implications as well. For example, when manufacturing a
product, you need to look at the environmental impact of the
products entire lifecycle, from development to disposal before
finalizing your designs. 91 ‘Forests disappearing at alarming rate,
says UN ‘, Deccan Herald, July 7, 2013, p. 11. 92 A region is arid
when it is characterized by a severe lack of available water, to
the extent of hindering or preventing the growth and development of
plant and animal life.
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38
years later, in 1986, they covered only 29% - and were going
fast. In the tropics today,
10 trees are being cut for every one planted. In Africa, the
ratio is 29 to 1.93
For the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on the
productivity of these
marginal areas, desertification creates additional environmental
stress. Declining
vegetation and soil quality can result in the release of carbon.
These effects are small
compared to impact of global energy use, although at the
national level they may be
the most important source of greenhouse gas emissions for
certain states.
Thus Desertification may influence global climate change by
altering the
emission and absorption of greenhouse gases and also contributes
to a variety of
global environmental problems, including greenhouse-gas-induced
climate change,
loss of biodiversity and pollution of international waters.
Global climate change may
also in turn accelerate desertification if higher temperatures
increase evaporation or if
rainfall decreases.
2.3.5 Agriculture
Agriculture contributes to the emission of GHGs through three
primary means
rice cultivation, nitrogenous fertilizer use, and enteric
fermentation94 in domestic
animals. Estimates place the annual contribution of the
cultivation and domestic
animals at approximately 20 and 15%, respectively of global
methane production.
Global methane emissions from rice and enteric fermentation
increase about 35% and
65% respectively, by 20-25; and N2O emission from fertilizer use
are projected to
increase by 133% by 2025. It has been found out the emission
from all three
categories i.e., emissions from rice, enteric fermentation, and
nitrogenous fertilizer
would increase by approximately 40%, 125% and 175%, respectively
by 2100.95
Rice is grown during the warm, humid season between June and
October and
wheat in the cold, dry months from November to March. A major
farming practice
followed in Asia is the rice-wheat system (RWS)96 under which
the two cereals are
grown one after the other on the same piece of land. The use of
such combine
93 Jim Mac Neill, ‘The Greening of International Relations’,
International Journal, Vol. 45, No. 1, The Greening of World
Politics (Winter,1989/1990), pp. 1-35. 94 Enteric fermentation is a
digestive process by which carbohydrates are broken down by
microorganisms into simple molecules for absorption into the
bloodstream of an animal. It is one of the factors in increased
methane emissions. 95 P. R. Trivedi, K Chery Sudharshan, supra note
77, p. 54. 96 Rice-wheat rotations are the most important cropping
system of the Indo-Gangetic plains. The expansion of rice–wheat
cropping that occurred under the green revolution, and turned
Punjab and surrounding states into the food bowl of India, has led
to degradation of the natural environment.
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39
harvester in India for rice and wheat is also generating
millions of tones of crop
residue every year. To dispose the waste, farmers usually burn
it. This causes
significant loss of nutrients in the soil and destroys its
microbes97, besides adding to
greenhouse emissions according to a study by scientists from
Delhi based National
Physical Laboratory and the Rice Wheat Consortium of the
International Maize and
Wheat improvement Center in Mexico.98
In India, livestock accounts for 78% of the total methane
emissions from the
agricultural sector and 50% of emissions overall. India has a
per capita cattle
population of 185 cattle/1000 people. Methane is produced during
fermentation of
feed in the stomach. Methane emission from livestock in India
has been found to be
much lower than the estimates of the IPCC: 46 kg per animal per
year. A recent study
estimates that the amount is much less-between 20 kg and 33 kg,
taking into account
state-wide variations in methane emission per animal per year,
also called the
methane emission coefficient.
Keeping methane in aerobic conditions and creating unfavorable
conditions
for its generation by turning the manure often can decrease
methane generation by 30
to 40 % if properly followed, and for this Country-specific
methane emission factors
were first developed in 1992 for the agricultural sector and
improved thereafter.99
Global warming is a major concern due to increase in
atmospheric
concentration of greenhouse gases, mainly due to anthropogenic
activities. Methane is
one of the most harmful greenhouse gases and India and China
have been accused of
being the largest emitters of methane. Indian scientists on the
other hand have been
trying to make more accurate estimations of methane emissions
from livestock and
agriculture.
2.3.6 Vehicular Pollution
Air pollution can be attributed broadly to rapid
industrialization, energy
production, urbanization, commercialization, and an increase in
the number of
motorized vehicles. Vehicles are a major source of pollutants in
cities and towns.
Apart from the sheer numbers, other factors contributing to the
increasing vehicular
pollution in urban areas include the types of engines used, age
of vehicles, density of 97 A microorganism or microbe is a
microscopic organism, which may be a single cell or multicellular
organism. 98 ‘Poor soil, Global Warming’, Down to Earth, Feb. 28,
2005, p. 21. 99Archita Bhatta, ‘Errors of Emission: New research
finds Indian Cattle Produce Less Methane’, Down to Earth, Jan 15,
2007, p. 36.
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traffic, road conditions, and the status of automotive
technologies and traffic
management systems.100
Ozone in the lower atmosphere layer called the troposphere101 is
regarded as a
serious pollutant that can cause respiratory problems, and even
damage masonry and
agricultural crops. The principal originating source is the
emissions from road
vehicles. These include the exhaust gases such as nitrogen
oxides, non-methane
volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide. Ozone is the
product of these
gases participation in a complex series of chemical reactions
where sunlight and heat
act as catalysts. Summer months are generally worse for
ozone.102
But going by a recent report from Center for Science and
Environment
(CSE)103, the uncontrolled vehicular growth on Indian roads is
causing very visible
impact on the environment. The report talks of how the car
industry is pushing diesel
cars in the name of fuel-efficiency, even when these cars are
several times more
polluting than petrol cars. India’s most popular small diesel
car is more than 20-30%
less fuel-efficient and 50% more polluting than its counterparts
in Europe, said the
report.104
Summers in Delhi are now predicted to be more polluted than
winters because
the nature of vehicular and domestic emissions has changed,
leading to production of
more oxides of nitrogen, the culprits that trigger heightened
chemical reactions in the
summer heat. According to the World Health Organization
(WHO)105, Delhi is one
among the top ten most polluted cities in the world and almost
all-major Indian cities
are above the prescribed standard limit of the SPM (Suspended
Particulate Matter).
The vehicular pollution accounts for nearly 70% of the total air
pollution in India.
There by affecting the climate system.
100 Dr. S. C. Deb, supra note 86, p. 104. 101 The lowest part of
the atmosphere, from the surface to about 10 km in altitude at
mid-latitudes (ranging from 9 km at high latitudes to 16 km in the
tropics on average), where clouds and weather phenomena occur. In
the troposphere, temperatures generally decrease with height. 102
‘London’s clue to stubborn ozone levels’, Deccan Herald, Dec.18,
2012, Spectrum Supplement, p.4 103 The Centre for Science and
Environment (CSE) is a public interest research and advocacy
organization based in New Delhi. CSE researches into, lobbies for
and communicates the urgency of development that is both
sustainable and equitable. CSE’s efforts are specifically designed
to create awareness about problems and propose sustainable
solutions. 104 Jayalakshmi K, ‘Guilty or Not?’, Deccan Hearlad,
Science & Technology, March 13, 2007, p. 3 105 The World Health
Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is
concerned with international public health. It was established on 7
April 1948, with its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. It is
responsible for providing leadership on global health matters,
shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards,
articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical
support to countries and monitoring and assessing health
trends.
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41
2.3.7 Ozone Depletion
The creation and destruction of ozone is a regular natural
process, which never
disturbs the equilibrium level of ozone in the stratosphere.106
But when the destruction
of ozone exceeds the level of ozone creation, serious
consequences are bound to crop
up due to disequilibria in the level of ozone. Any change in the
equilibrium level of
the ozone in the atmosphere will adversely affect life in the
biosphere.107
Ozone depletion describes two distinct but related phenomena
observed since
the late 1970s: a steady decline of about 4% per decade in the
total volume of ozone
in Earth's stratosphere (the ozone layer), and a much larger
springtime decrease in
stratospheric ozone over Earth’s Polar Regions. The latter
phenomenon is referred to
as the ozone hole. In addition to these well-known stratospheric
phenomena, there are
also springtime polar tropospheric ozone depletion events.
The details of polar ozone hole formation differ from that of
mid-latitude
thinning, but the most important process in both is catalytic
destruction of ozone by
atomic halogens. The main source of these halogen atoms in the
stratosphere is photo
dissociation of man-made halocarbon refrigerants, solvents,
propellants, and foam-
blowing agents (CFCs, HCFCs, freons, halons). These compounds
are transported
into the stratosphere after being emitted at the surface. Both
types of ozone depletion
have been observed to increase as emissions of halo-carbons
increased.
CFCs and other contributory substances are referred to as
ozone-depleting
substances (ODS). Since the ozone layer prevents most harmful
UVB wavelengths
(280–315 nm) of ultraviolet light (UV light) from passing
through the Earth’s
atmosphere, observed and projected decreases in ozone have
generated worldwide
concern leading to adoption of the Montreal Protocol108 that
bans the production of
CFCs, halons, and other ozone-depleting chemicals such as carbon
tetrachloride and
trichloroethane. It is suspected that a variety of biological
consequences such as
increases in skin cancer, cataracts, damage to plants, and
reduction of plankton
populations in the ocean’s photic zone may result from the
increased UV exposure
106 The highly stratified region of the atmosphere above the
troposphere extending from about 10 km (ranging from 9 km at high
latitudes to 16 km in the tropics on average) to about 50 km
altitude. 107 Dr. S. C. Deb, supra note 86, p. 119. 108 The
Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer was
designed to reduce the production and consumption of ozone
depleting substances in order to reduce their abundance in the
atmosphere, and thereby protect the earth’s fragile ozone Layer.
The original Montreal Protocol was agreed on 16 September 1987 and
entered into force on 1 January 1989.
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42
due to ozone depletion.109
The ozone layer serves as a shield protecting the troposphere
and earth’s
surface from most of the ultra violet radiation found in the
sun’s rays. If these ultra
violet rays reach the earth’s surface in full intensity, all
exposed bacteria would be
destroyed; plants and animal tissues would be severely damaged.
In this protective
role, the presence of ozone layer is an essential factor in
man’s environment
especially the global climate system.110
2.3.8 Consumption patterns
Industrial processes enable swift production of different
commodities;
improvements in transportation, logistics, and information
technologies resulted in an
increasing volume and variety of goods and services sold in the
market place and the
emergence of new forms of markets.
Consumerism111 plays a role in securing the economic and
individual well-
being. Consumer choices and actions may influence social and
environmental
relations at the time of purchase and use, or in the future.
Similarly, consumer actions
may impact environments positively or negatively in local
contexts (such as in
households and communities), or at a distance (for example, via
connections through
production or disposal processes.
Concern about carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions
and their
contribution to global warming have coincided with a continuing
recognition of limits
to growth based on the use of nonrenewable resources, and
evidence of the negative
impacts of commodity consumption on the environment. The global
proliferation of
commodities and consumerism has become a source of social and
environmental
concern. The promotion of green commodities as a distinct
alternative to other goods
and services are available in the market under the concept of
green consumerism
which intends to reduce harmful effects on the environment in
relation to the
production or consumption processes.
For example: It is estimated that, on a global average, 18 to
20% of the
electricity produced is used for lighting and 80% of the
lighting is done using in
candescent bulbs. In an incandescent bulb the electric current
passing through the fila- 109
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozone_Depletion accessed on 12th
March, 2014. 110 Environmental Pollution: Sources and effects,
Civil Services Chronicle, special edn, 2012, p. 95. 111 Consumerism
is sometimes used in reference to the anthropological and
biological phenomena of people purchasing goods and consuming
materials in excess of their basic needs, which would make it
recognizable in any society including ancient civilizations.
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43
ment heats it up to about 2500o C. The heat excites the atoms in
the filament causing
it to emit light. In the process, however, nearly 90% of the
electricity is converted to
waste heat, making the bulb highly energy inefficient.
Presently High Pressure Sodium Vapour (HPSV) lamps are in the
wide use in
most of the cities and towns of our country. They are available
in many versions. The
250W and 150W type are popularly used. The actual wattage used
depends on the
type of street.112 More than 60% of the global electricity is
obtained by burning coal.
The seven thermal power plants in Raichur each producing 210
Megawatts burn about
21,000 tons of coal every day. Every ton of coal burnt produces
3.7 tons of CO2, in
addition to other pollutants like oxides of sulphur and
nitrogen. According to an
estimate by Scientific American every Kwh of electricity
produced releases 0.25 kg of
carbon. Hence, switching over to CFL can have global impact.
The latest avatar of the florescent lamp is the compact
fluorescent lamp
(CFL)113. They are small user friendly and can be flitted into
existing bulb holders
without the need for additional fixtures. But critics point out
that used CFLs during
recycling may release mercury, one of the most toxic elements,
to the environment.
However, according to a report from the General Electric Company
it is about four
times less than the quantity of mercury released during coal
burning to produce the
amount of electricity required to use an incandescent bulb.
Henc