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Products from Oil

Environmental Issues.

2) Fossil fuels are burnt on a huge scale - Global Warming.

Carbon dioxide is called a greenhouse gas.
It is causing the global temperature of the Earth to rise.
This rise in temperature affects the climate all over the planet
 in ways which are hard to predict.
Some areas may become wetter or dryer, other areas may become hotter.
The main (predictable) directions of wind and ocean currents on the planet
may slow down, speed up, or change direction.
This could have catastrophic consequences for life on planet Earth.


Is Global Warming really happening? - What's the evidence?

Evidence is everywhere.
Nineteen out of the twenty hottest years on record have occurred since 1983.
2005 and 1998 have been the hottest years so far recorded,
followed by 2006, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Glaciers (ice up mountains) and polar ice caps
 (the North and South Poles) are melting.
15% of ice at the North Pole (Arctic) has already gone.
It is currently losing 14,000 square miles per year.
The Alps have lost 50% of their glaciers in the last century.

Greenland has the biggest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere.
A study in 2001 showed that melting was lowering the height
 of the ice sheet edge by one metre per year.
A study in 2004 showed that melting was lowering the height
 of the ice sheet edge by ten metres per year.
The process is accelerating rapidly.

70% of the world's fresh water exists as ice at the South Pole (Antarctica).
The South Pole is obviously breaking up. An iceberg the size of Cyprus
 has been seen breaking free from the main ice sheet.
The average temperature of Antarctica is rising faster
 than anywhere else, having increased by 2·5 °C since 1940.

Pollution and global climate change is too big a topic for this website.
For more information on drought, floods, hurricanes,
the loss of Australia's Great Barrier Reef (25 years to go),
and what we can do about it, visit the website of Greenpeace.

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