[Letters] Global Warming and the future

Since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century, the amount of greenhouse gas in the air is increasing in a continuous and accelerative way. Numerous scientists are anticipating that the global warming caused by greenhouse gas emitted by humans will lead to a miserable future for the earth. The misery they are talking about is that global warming will continue through the end of the 21st century and will lead to a huge temperature change with these changes affecting food and the social economical field directly and indirectly.

Because climate change is not felt in day-to-day life, people tend not to pay much attention to it. The crisis of global warming is too abstract and vague and seems unrealistic for many people.

Problems caused by temperature change happen in different parts of the earth in different forms. Examples range from flood and drought, melting glaciers, El Nino, and health problems for those who cannot adapt to the change. What these problems have in common is that they are unpredictable, and because of this, difficult to fix. Unless our reliance on fossil fuels lessens, we will not be able to address climate change in any significant way.

The ‘Kyoto Protocol’ turns to countries that have led in industrialization and CO2 emissions, and it is no exaggeration to say that it failed due to a lack of cooperation from the United States. If developed and developing countries want the industrialization to continue, then accelerating climate change cannot be prevented. Nations of the world should make a decision, because global warming caused by the increase of carbon dioxide will only lead to a tragic disaster.

Nations of the world should be cooperative with as many organizations and institutions as possible in developing the emission rights market and practicing laws that adapt to global warming.

Korea must be actively trying nationally to get the cooperation of NGOs, private enterprise, and the people, and internationally, to successfully contract global agreements and have the will to fulfill them. Also, it is important to find ways to adapt to climate change, since it is very difficult to stop the change. Therefore, we need to develop policies that make adjustments to stem global warming, and programs for minimizing the damage of natural disasters.

By Cho Won-shik,

Yangchung High School Student