standup.comboniyouth.org.uk

Damage to the environment affects every part of creation. Hardly a day goes by without some mention of these matters by radio, television and newspapers.

• From April 1997 to May 1998 'el nino' struck causing heat waves in Indonesia, China, S. Africa, Australia and floods in Kenya, California, and across Europe.
• In Europe temperature rise in the summer 2003 caused forest fire in Portugal and in France some 15 thousands elderly people died as a result.
• In 2005 hurricane Katrina hit badly New Orleans.

Climate change is an extremely serious challenge and we are now at a crucial point. A rise of 3-5 degrees hotter by the end of century and Greenland's icecap will melt creating catastrophic flooding, tropical rainforest burn away and turn into savannah and desert.

Undoubtedly, the world's climate is changing and greenhouse gases produced by human activity are contributing substantially to this. The greenhouse effect is caused by a number of gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, chlorofluorocarbons and ozone) present in the upper atmosphere. These gases help to trap heat energy in the earth's atmosphere by absorbing and reflecting long-wave solar radiation. We have to cut down air pollution if we want to reduce greenhouse gases.