Self-explanatory Climate change is already happening, and we are already seeing the impacts all around the world.

. Which means we must take action now to ensure a future safe from the worst effects of climate change. such as Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit activist. She has been a political representative for Inuit at the regional, national and international levels, most recently as International Chair for Inuit Circumpolar Council. Watt-Cloutier has worked on a range of social and environmental issues affecting Inuit, and has most recently focused on persistent organic pollutants and global climate change. Warmer weather increases the spread of parasitic diseases. Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are thriving in a warmer and moister climate, spreading the deadly disease to previously untouched parts of Africas highlands. Dengue fever, which is caused by 4 potentially fatal, mosquito-borne viruses, is also on the rise, with about 2/5 of the worlds population now living in affected areas, according to the WHO (World Health Organization). to ensure an equitable future safe from climate catastrophe. It's no small task, but for people and nations everywhere, we need to make sure all of the worlds decision makers pay attention to the most recent science that is telling us 350 is the right target to aim for. And thats what we need this December, when world leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark to craft a new global treaty on cutting emissions. The treaty currently on the table doesn't address the severity of the climate crisis--it doesn't pass the 350 test. By moving away from fossil fuels and utilizing alternate sources of energy.. The greenhouse effect refers to the rise in temperature that the Earth experiences because certain gases (water vapor, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane, for example) trap energy from the sun. Without these gases, heat would escape back into space and Earths average temperature would be about 60F colder. Because of how they warm our world, these gases are referred to as greenhouse gases much like how the glass panes of a greenhouse let in light but keep heat from escaping, causing the greenhouse to heat up. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the layer of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land and water absorb the sunlights energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back

into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up. To find out, we're going to take a look at some climate impacts that are happening now. Our first example is the rapid melting of glaciers around the world. From the Himalayas, to the Andes, to the Alps to the Arctic, glaciers are melting aroudn the world, and at astonishing rates, as you'll see from the following series of photos. Many major cities and populations depend on these glaciers for water, and agricultural productivity the impending disappearance of these glaciers is a major threat to food and water security for major population centers worldwide. Over 1.5 billion people from India to China depend on the Himalayan glaciers, which are melting at a rapid rate Earlier this year in Bolivia, the Chacaltaya Glacier completely disappeared, one of the glaciers that once supplied water to farmers and inhabitants of the region. For example, take a look at this picture of Muir and Riggs Glacier in Alaska in 1941. And now take a look at that same shot of the glacier in 2004. The glacier has obviously receded in a drastic manner in fact, its been measured that the glacier has retreated more than 20 km. Secondly, oceans are acidifying. What this means is that, as oceans soak up large amounts of carbon dioxide, the water is becoming more acidic, affecting coral reefs, algae, and marine life. As ocean acidification increases, calcium carbonate ions that protect coral reefs are becoming more scarce, and reef skeletons are eroding quickly. In addition to the fact that oceans are absorbing and releasing heat is the rise in sea levels. As ocean water warms, it also expands, and the rise will be increasingly compounded by glacial melting. Due to the melting of glaciers around the globe, land-based ice melt, according to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), has caused a rise in ocean levels of about 5 cm per year. This might not seem like a lot, but the rise is slowly creeping upward, with the potential to make islands and coastal regions around the world uninhabitable. The IPCC conservatively estimates that sea levels could rise by 1m by 2100, which would have a devastating effect on major coastal cities, island states and populous delta areas such as those in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

In addition to rising seas, ocean warming also causes weather patterns to become more extreme.. The damage done by 2005s Hurricane Katrina topped anything produced by a single US storm for many decades. More than 1,800 people died, and billions of dollars were needed to repair property damage caused by the storm. Even today, four years later, New Orleans has not completely recovered from the tragedy. While the number of droughts are on the rise due to climate change, as we saw before, too much rain at once has also been causing horrific floods. Precipitation intensity is increasing in certain areas, and snow or rain once it comes tends to last several days instead of just a few hours. Whats even worse is that higher temperatures not only allow more rain-producing moisture to enter the atmosphere, but they also take more water of out of land where it hasnt been raining, resulting in both floods and droughts.

Recently, in February of 2009, the Solomon Islands declared a national disaster after rain and flooding in the South Pacific nation killed 8 people and left another 13 missing, destroying homes and bridges. Flooding was also observed in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia and the Marshall Islands, forcing tens of thousands of islanders to abandon their homes As you can see here, the number of floods witnessed worldwide since 1950 has skyrocketed. to Australia, inciting the need for climate action now Perhaps the most startling evidence yet that we are outside of the safety zone for planet Earth, has been the melting of the arctic. Take a look at the Arctic, in 1979, and most recently, in 2007. Therefore, climate change threatens our basic security.