The No-Nonsense guide to Climate Change [antikvár]

Foreword GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE is seen as the biggest threat to the world's environment, with devastating consequences for humans, animals and ecosystems. We are already seeing the first frightening signs of ecosystems under stress, such as the coral reefs, acting as canaries in the coal mine. Indeed, climate change will have consequences for nearly everyone on this planet, and it should therefore be in everyone's interest to get the problem resolved. Global problems need global cooperation. Unfortunately, despite governments' current attempts at international negotiations to curb emissions, discussions around the details of how emission reduction commitments shall be met have grown very complex, far removed from the average person. At the time of writing this foreword, climate negotiations have broken down anew because countries like the United States, Japan, Canada and Australia refused to change their ways and showed no signs of flexibility. If we want to avoid dangerous climate change, we will have to change the way in which we produce our energy. Industrialized countries have to invest in sustainable technologies domestically and then assist developing countries through technology transfer towards a path of sustainable energy economy. The sad reality is that in both industrial and developing countries, investments are being made every day that lock them into old-fashioned fossil-fuel technologies. Every one of these decisions delays the transition to cleaner energy systems and guarantees the input of yet more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Greenpeace believes that it is possible to completely change the way the world provides for its future energy needs. We can no longer assume that fossil