The Environment Essay Research Paper — страница 2

planting native trees indigenous to the area and applying to the council prior to removing any trees. The Labor Tasmanian Government has created a new Environment Policy on biodiversity that hopes to preserve native plants and animals. The policies commit the government to encourage community involvement in biological diversity programs, proclaim the Tasman National Park, establish a State Biodiversity Committee with community representation to arrange a Tasmanian Biodiversity Strategy, support the development of a State Policy on the protection of remnant native vegetation, examine the possibility of incorporating the Biodiversity Strategy into legislation and seeking the co-operation of local government and the community in including and enforcing biological diversity

guidelines in development criteria. The federal government has enabled several policies to deal with conservation of Australia’s biodiversity. The government will support the National Reserve System program to expand Australia’s National Parks, support off-reserve biodiversity conservation including the planting of trees and the protection of vegetation through the Bushcare program and work with the States to reduce unsustainable land clearing, develop an “alert list” of introduced plants and animals that pose a risk to our environment. The government will also maintain a ban on the export of live fauna; support research into Australia’s floral and fauna assemblages as well as biodiversity conservation methods and ratify the Desertification Convention. An international

conference held in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997 discussed issues on how best to reduce global warming. Kyoto Protocol negotiations have reached a legally binding agreement limiting the amount of gas emissions all industrialized countries. The protocol also included provisions for emission trading between industrialized countries. The overall nominal effect of the Kyoto protocol is for a reduction of 5.2% of emissions by 2010. However the agreement has many flaws and could lead to emission rising above 1990 levels. The protocol specifies that Japan must reduce emissions by 6%, USA by 7% and the European Union by 8%. The chairman of the conference negotiators, Raul Estrada said that further discussions were needed to find a way of implementing a system of trading in emissions.

Trading allows countries that produce high levels of greenhouse gases, such as the USA, to buy the right to retain or even increase emissions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Global warming refers to an expected rise in global average temperature due to the continued emission of greenhouse gases produced by industry and agriculture which trap heat in the atmosphere. Higher temperatures are expected to be accompanied by changing patterns of precipitation frequency and intensity, changes in soil moisture and a rise of the global sea level. To assess current examples relating to global warming, an examination is first needed on these examples. Sea levels could rise six feet and up in future centuries. The entire Amazon rainforest will be lost if the level of

carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases by more than 50%. But no matter whatever action the world takes to stop global warming, sea levels are set to rise and wipe out several island nations. The worst news is that whatever governments do to cut emissions, sea levels will rise by at least 2 metres over the next few hundred years, devastating Tuvalu and Kiribati in the Pacific and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. Low-lying farmland and cities occupied by hundreds of millions of people will also be engulfed. Robert Nicholls of Middlesex University in London stated that “thermal expansion of the ocean will continue for many hundreds of years after CO2 is stabilized, due to the gradual penetration of heat deeper and deeper into the ocean. All around the world ice sheets and

glaciers are melting at a rate quite remarkably since record keeping began. A worldwide institute, based in Washington DC says that glaciers and other features are particularly sensitive to temperature shifts, and that “scientists suspect the enhanced melting is among the first observable signs of human induced global warming. Some of the effects of global warming are as follows: arctic ocean sea ice shrunk by 6% since 1978, with a 14% loss of thicker year round ice, Greenland ice sheet has thinned by more than a metre a year on its southern and eastern edges since 1993 and 22% of glacial ice volume on the Tien Shan mountains has disappeared in the last 40 years. Worldwatch declared that the Earth’s ice cover reflects much of the sun’s heat back into space and the loss of