ACCOUNTING FOR BALANCE IN THE ENVIRONMENT 3: Greenhouse Gas Emission & Climate Change

The reliance on fossil fuels (which emit greenhouse gases or CO₂) for energy is affecting Mother Earth’s climatic balance: melting ice and disappearing glaciers at the earth’s poles, more frequent extreme degree days, sea level rise, increased flooding and strong winds, habitat degradation and loss of biodiversity –among other horrors.

A big problem is developing countries largely depend on fossil fuels to fuel their economic growth. Their models are, of course, the industrialized countries. An article by Jared Diamond (New York Times OpEd Contributor and UCLA professor of geography) noted:

The average rates at which people consume resources like oil and metals, and produce wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, are about 32 times higher in North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia than they are in the developing world.

How can you maintain a balance between economic growth and climate change?

images from Microsoft Clipart