The latest report on global warming coming from UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has offered a gloomy and frightening picture for the future of the planet, saying that with the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere there is no way to stop their affect on the atmosphere for many centuries.
The panel believes that a collective effort from all the countries could save the planet from the extreme effect of global warming, such as widespread flooding, drought and extreme weather. However bringing the atmosphere to equilibrium is a different matter.
The last time that the ability of the atmosphere to absorb the emission of carbon dioxide and other gases was at equilibrium was over 150 years ago, before the age of steam engines and vehicles. According to Richard Somerville, a theoretical meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, the only way to stabilize atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide will be to reduce the emissions by as much as 70 to 80 percent.
A glimpse of the future is indeed terrifying as predicted by the Stern review last October. Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change at United Nations said that around 113 nations had signed the report summary. "he world urgently needs a new international agreement on stronger emissions caps for industrialized countries, incentives for developing countries to limit their emissions, and support for robust adaptation measures," he added.
Energy policy initiatives are the need of the hour, experts feel. They said that the governments need to urgently examine the existing framework and make whatever changes are required.
