Can Global Warming be Stopped?

Climate Change is “a shift in global or regional climate patterns, particularly one that began in the mid- to late-twentieth century and may be traced back to higher quantities of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels”.

Climate change is primarily caused by human activity. People use fossil fuels and transform forestland to agricultural land. People have been burning more fossil fuels and converting enormous swaths of land from forests to farms since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is produced when fossil fuels are burned. Because it causes a "greenhouse effect," it is called a greenhouse gas. The world is warmed by the greenhouse effect, much as a greenhouse is warmed by its surroundings.

Human-caused climate change is mostly caused by carbon dioxide.

Mitigation Measures

Production of alternative energy

Carbon sequestration

Trees plantation

International treaties

Agricultural systems change

Managing the supply of water

Lowering the risk of rising sea levels

Humans have already triggered massive climatic changes, and we are on the verge of causing many more.

Yes. While we won't be able to stop global warming immediately, or even over the next several decades, we can take steps to mitigate its effects.

By lowering human emissions of heat-trapping gases and soot (also known as "black carbon"), we can delay and control global warming.

Global warming would continue for at least several decades, if not millennia, even if humanity stopped generating greenhouse gases today.

That’s because it takes a while for the planet (for example, the oceans) to respond, and because carbon dioxide – the predominant heat-trapping gas – lingers in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. 

According to the current predictions, global temperature will rise by 2.5°C to 4.5°C (4.5°F to 8°F) by 2100 if serious action to reduce emissions is not taken.

However, it may not be too late to avoid or mitigate some of climate change's worst effects.

Responding to climate change will involve a two-tier approach

1) “Mitigation” – reducing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere; and

2) “Adaptation” – learning to live with, and adapt to, the climate change that has already been set in motion.

The key question is: what will our carbon dioxide and other pollutant emissions are in the future?