Gills, Justin.
"U.N. Climate Panel Endorses Ceiling on Global Emissions -
NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News &
Multimedia. New York Times, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 1 Oct. 2013.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/28/science/global-climate-change-report.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=science>.
Last Friday,
September 27th, the UN Climate Panel put a limit on greenhouse gases
by setting a target level on how much of these gases people can put in the
atmosphere before unalterable climate changes occur. This is the first time the
UN has put a limit on greenhouse gasses. In their report, scientists listed
many climate changes that are already happening and that most likely will
worsen if emissions are not reduced. They also said there is almost complete
certainty that human activity is the main reason behind global climate change,
causing the atmosphere and ocean to warm, the global water cycle to change, reduced
snow and ice, a rise in average sea level, and extreme climate changes. The
limit for carbon dioxide emissions (the main greenhouse gas) has been set at 1
trillion metric tons, which will likely be exceeded in 2040 if these emissions
are not reduced soon. The UN says that once this trillionth ton is burned,
companies that continue to burn fossil fuels will have to come up with a way to
capture and store the carbon dioxide emissions underground. However, critics
argue that the Obama Administration is waging a “war on coal,” and that rising
ocean levels and plant and animal extinction are natural and inevitable. On the
other hand, others argue that the UN’s proposal was too cautious, saying that
the report included data that was questionable regarding the earth’s
sensitivity to carbon dioxide. The data says that the earth is not as sensitive
to carbon dioxide emissions as we previously thought. Despite all of the
criticism on the plan, the UN secretary general declared his intension to push
a global climate treaty forward in 2014.
Global climate change effects human life in a variety of
ways. Atmosphere and ocean warming,
global water cycle change, reduced snow and ice, average sea level rising, and
extreme climate changes all have detrimental effects on life as we know it. If
these changes were to worsen, and it is likely that they will, they could have
potentially catastrophic effects on our planet, our one and only home.
I found this
article very informative on the UN’s plan to reduce emissions. I would have
liked if the author talked more about why this is the first time the UN has
made a plan to reduce emissions and how people can take steps to prevent
climate change from worsening. Overall, this article was very well written and
clearly explains a very important current event.
I really liked how Maggie a lot of good and interesting details that helped describe the catastrophic changes our planet may face if we do not clean up our act when using carbon dioxide. I also liked how Maggie included that carbon dioxide might not be as harmful to the Earth as we thought it was. I liked that she used this because it shows that all this global warming and carbon dioxide problems could possibly not even exist. Finally, I really liked how Maggie really gave a lot of effort in her conclusion, highlighting the positive and negative points in the article.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I did not like about the review Maggie wrote is that she did not include her opinion on what she believes she should be done to solve this unfortunate situation. A second thing that I did not like about Maggie's review is that she did not give background information about the UN Climate Panel, because I would have like to read information about the panel because I have not heard of the UN Climate Panel until I read this review.
One thing that I learned from this review is that there is now a limit on how much carbon dioxide emissions can be let off. The limit is one trillion metric tons. Overall, I believe Maggie's review was done exceptionally well and I would love to read this article myself to learn more about this situation.
Maggie chose a really interesting article to write about. She gave us a lot of information about the issue and gave some background information too. Maggie also did a good job of explaining to us how the major climate changes are humans fault because we are letting to many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Maggie also did a very good job of showing how there is a very high chance that the earth is not as sensitive to carbon dioxide as we have previously thought, this was proven because of new experiments coming out.
ReplyDeleteWhile Maggie’s review was good and had a lot of facts it was also a little long so maybe next time she could make it a little shorter because that would have made it a little easier to read it. I think this review could have also been made better if she had given a little more of her opinion because that would have made the review of the article even better.
I was not aware before I read the article that the UN was making such a limit, I honestly agree strongly with this limit because it will protect this earth.