By Ana María Restrepo
In recent days, in Valencia, Spain, during the meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ippc), the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, called attention to the risks that this phenomenon will produce in the world. Also, in this meeting, the Ippc presented reports with some "creepy" data on the increase in global temperature, since it is expected that this century it will increase between 1.8 and 4 degrees, although it could be up to 6.4 degrees, which in turn would cause the extinction of 30% of species and a decrease in production. Agricultural ón, leading to a crisis of world starvation.
The climate imbalance has become more latent since last year, droughts and rainfall have increased, and natural disasters have left thousands dead like the last cyclone "Sidr" that devastated Bangladesh, leaving more than 2000 dead and more than 1000 people missing.
Climate change or global warming?
To get into the matter and be able to analyze what is really happening on the planet, it is possible to differentiate some terms that we do not all have clear.
Global warming can be used in two ways, according to wikipedia.org the first is that warming can be understood as the phenomenon observed in temperature measurements that shows an increase in the Earth's atmosphere, oceans and temperature in recent decades and also as the theory that predicts, from projections based on computer simulations, a future growth of temperatures. However, the term global warming is often used when considering the influence of human activity and the emission of greenhouse gases.
For its part, climate change refers to the global variation of the earth's climate, which are due to natural causes, but in recent years also to the action of humanity, although it is also synonymous with global warming.
Warming and consequences
"The changes in average temperatures began in 1900 when man entered the industrial era producing machines that needed the burning of fossil fuels to function," explained Michel Hermelin, Geology and Petroleum Engineer at the Faculty of Mines of the National University of Colombia. Medellín headquarters, in the "Water, Forest, Warming and Climate" Scenario that was held in Medellín between November 1 and 2 of last year.
In the same way, Hermelin exposed the climate crisis of Colombia, which is represented in the "extinction" of the páramos (ecosystems that are located at 3,000 meters above sea level), where the water of many important Colombian cities comes from, since men are affecting the vegetation through crops and the grazing of livestock. He also explained that in a few years the coastal cities of Santa Marta and Cartagena and the island of San Andrés will be on the water.
For his part, Germán Poveda, civil engineer and Master in water resources use at the National University of Colombia, Medellín headquarters, considers that the fundamental causes of global warming are the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and methane; and deforestation. However, he claims that most human activity is producing global warming.
As for the effect that climate change is causing in Latin America, we can observe the melting of the tropical glaciers of the Andes Mountains, the rise in sea level that is harming coastal ecosystems and coral reefs and the melting of ice in Patagonia. Similarly, "the Amazon rainforest is suffering very accelerated deforestation processes and it is known that the Amazon basin generates its own climate and is a very important site of the earth to maintain the global climate, so the fact that the Amazon is being deforested is contributing to climate change, "- Poveda explained.
In addition to the predictions for Colombia, experts in this scenario assured that in some years, approximately 30, global warming will be much more intense, in some countries such as Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay rainfall will increase, while in Chile the drought will be much stronger and in the subtropical region the hot seasons will be Longer and milder winters, while Brazil's water resource will be affected by 90%.
In the last meeting of the Ippc, the UN Secretary General also highlighted, as crucial aspects in the reports delivered by these experts, that climate change will especially affect developing countries and said that the melting of glaciers will cause flooding in mountainous areas and water scarcity in Asia. southern
and South America.
Kyoto Protocol
In 1997, the developed countries committed themselves in the city of Kyoto to carry out, as a team, different measures to reduce the production of greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide (CO2), methane gas (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), in addition to three fluorinated industrial gases: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFC) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) by an average of 5% of polluting emissions between 2008 and 2012, taking as a reference the levels of 1990. This agreement came into force in 2005 after Russia ratified its participation, however, it should be noted that the United States signed the agreement but did not ratify it, and its adhesion and commitment was withdrawn in 2001.
In addition to the agreement on the reduction of gas emissions, the use of non-conventional energies such as wind or hydrothermal energy is promoted.
Some solutions
In November last year, the Spanish government approved the Spanish Climate Change and Clean Energy Strategy 2007-2012-2020, to comply with the Protocol. This strategy contains 198 measures related to clean energy and climate change, 75 monitoring indicators and 80 urgent actions, for which an investment of 2,500 million euros is planned.
The chapter on climate change includes international cooperation, emissions trading, sinks, CO2 capture and storage, adaptation to climate change, research, development and technological innovation and horizontal measures, among others.
Also in the chapter on clean energy, which aims to gradually reduce energy intensity in Spain, the areas of action such as energy efficiency, renewable energies, demand management, research, development and innovation in the development of technologies with low emission of dioxide were established. of carbon.
In addition, there is an Urgent Measures Plan that provides additional reductions of 12.2 million tons of CO2eq/year (61.1 million tons of CO2eq in the period).
For their part, Portugal and the United Kingdom will generate energy by taking advantage of the movement of the sea through the creation of power generators that will be off the Portuguese coast and the installation of a plant off the Welsh coast.
In Portugal, energy generators will be accommodated that will take advantage of the movement of the tides through tubes, which allow the circulation of water to generate electricity.
The UK power plant to be installed next year will supply power to 5,000 homes by moving eight turbines, each twenty-five metres long and fifteen metres high, which will be installed on the seabed off the St David Peninsula. in Pembrokeshire, South Wales.
Like these countries, some developing republics are also looking for solutions to mitigate climate change a little and the effect it has on their territory, however it is necessary that all industries, both those that produce the greatest effect and those that do not produce it so much, become aware of the needs of the environment and contribute their grain of sand in order to reduce a little the physical, environmental and social impacts that will be had if warming continues to increase.
