The Earth is heating up. Since 1990 the average temperature of the planet has increased by more than one degree Fahrenheit. Emissions of the Green House Gases (“GHGs”): carbon dioxide (CO₂); methane; the ozone depleting substances (CFCs, HCFCs, halons, and carbon tetrachloride) and their substitutes (HFCs); ozone, nitrous oxide; sulfur hexafluoride; and water vapor trap heat that comes from the sun causing the temperature of the Earth to increase. Urgent action is needed to reduce the emission of all green house gases to avoid severe impacts to the global environment. Combating climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge mankind has ever faced.

Increasing global temperature is causing the sea levels to rise, the acidification of the oceans threatening thousands of species, changes the amount and pattern of precipitation, including expansion of subtropical deserts. Glaciers, permafrost and sea ice are disappearing as never before in human history. Deforestation is adding to climate change by being the source of as much as 20 percent of CO₂ emissions. Global warming is also shrinking the Amazon rainforest and boreal forests around the world. The increases in temperature are causing increasingly severe weather events, the spread of disease, and reductions in crop yields in many parts of the world.

The changes caused by global warming also have a human face. Worldwide efforts to combat poverty are being undermined by the changes in global climate that are happening now and having devastating impacts on the world’s poorest people. Predictable weather patterns are essential for subsistence farmers and others who depend on the natural environment for food. The increased flooding, droughts and rise in sea level are all consistent with the predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations scientific panel assessing climate change. Oxfam is at the forefront worldwide, working to assess and mitigate this humanitarian crisis. A new report released by Oxfam estimates that as many as 375 million people could be impacted by the climate crisis by 2015, which threatens to overwhelm the humanitarian aid system. Action is need now!

Oxfam and Natural Resources Defense Counsel are two key non-governmental organizations responding to this crisis.

We are also going need to drastically reduce our use of fossil fuels, redesign our homes and offices, redesign how we distribute energy and even consider what we are eating. Together, we can change the course of history and effectively combat climate change!

Positive responses

Concerted efforts are being taken on the international, national and local levels to combat the effects of climate change. International negotiators are working to develop a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol in Copenhagen in December 2009.

The negotiators are also working to control ozone depleting substances and their substitutes, HFCs all of which are super greenhouse gases with global warming potentials hundreds or thousands of times as great as carbon dioxide. Ozone.unep.org.

The Congress is also working on a comprehensive climate change bill.