Law Regulating Global Warming
Written By:– Aayushi Singh
Introduction:
Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increase heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere. The term is used interchangeably with the term climate change, though the latter refers to both human and naturally produced warming and the effects it has on our planet. It is the most commonly measured global surface temperature.
In the pre-industrial period, human activities are estimated to have increased Earth’s global average temperature by about 1 degree Celsius, a number increasing by 0.2 degrees Celsius per decade. Most of the current warming trend is extremely likely the result of human activity since the 1950s and is proceeding at an unprecedented rate over decades to millennia.
It also refers to sea-level rise caused by the expansion of warmer seas and melting ice sheets and glaciers. Global warming causes climate change, which poses a serious threat to life on earth in the form of widespread flooding and extreme weather.
Global warming is related to the more general phenomenon of climate change, which refers to changes in the totality of attributes that define climate. In addition to changes in air temperature, climate change involves changes to precipitation patterns, winds, ocean currents, and other measures of Earth’s climate. Normally, climate change can be viewed as the combination of various natural forces occurring over diverse timescales. Since the advent of human civilization, climate change has involved an “anthropogenic,” or exclusively human-caused, element, and this anthropogenic element has become more important in the industrial period of the past two centuries. The term global warming is used specifically to refer to any warming of near-surface air during the past two centuries that can be traced to anthropogenic causes.
To define the concepts of global warming and climate change properly, it is first necessary to recognize that the climate of Earth has varied across many timescales, ranging from an individual human life span to billions of years. This variable climate history is typically classified in terms of “regimes” or “epochs.” For instance, the Pleistocene glacial epoch (about 2,600,000 to 11,700 years ago) was marked by substantial variations in the global extent of glaciers and ice sheets. These variations took place on timescales of tens to hundreds of millennia and were driven by changes in the distribution of solar radiation across Earth’s surface. The distribution of solar radiation is known as the insolation pattern, and it is strongly affected by the geometry of Earth’s orbit around the Sun and by the orientation, or tilt, of Earth’s axis relative to the direct rays of the Sun.
Causes of Global warming:
The Greenhouse effect:
The average surface temperature of Earth is maintained by a balance of various forms of solar and terrestrial radiation. Solar radiation is often called “shortwave” radiation because the frequencies of the radiation are relatively high and the wavelengths relatively short—close to the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. Terrestrial radiation, on the other hand, is often called “longwave” radiation because the frequencies are relatively low and the wavelengths relatively long—somewhere in the infrared part of the spectrum. Downward-moving solar energy is typically measured in watts per square metre. The energy of the total incoming solar radiation at the top of Earth’s atmosphere (the so-called “solar constant”) amounts roughly to 1,366 watts per square metre annually. Adjusting for the fact that only one-half of the planet’s surface receives solar radiation at any given time, the average surface insolation is 342 watts per square metre annually.
Law Regulating Global Warming all over India:
California passed the global warming solutions act in2006, containing serval major climate change initiatives. The Act’s overall goal is the statewide reduction of GHG emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.
India ratified the UN Framework Convention on climate change in 1993 and the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 but, not being an Annex-1 country, it did not take part in the flexibility mechanisms foreseen for developed countries. India is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. About half of India’s population is dependent upon agriculture or other climate-sensitive sectors. About 12% of India is flood-prone while 16% is drought-prone.
India is now the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world after China and the United States. India has almost tripled its annual emission between 1990 and 2009 from less than 600 metric tons to more than 1700 metric tons. India’s annual emissions of carbon oxide are projected to further increase almost 2.5 times between 2008 to 2035.
The net greenhouse gas emissions from India with land use, land-use change and forestry in 2007 were 1727.71 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. While the energy sector constituted 8% of the net carbon dioxide emissions, the industry sector, agriculture and waste sector constituted 22%, 17% and 3% respectively of the net carbon oxide emission.
Thus, climate change and energy are now a focus of local, state and national attention around the world. Though India earlier emphasized that it being a developing country with a historically low per capita emission rate, it is not responsible for past greenhouse gas emissions, however, India has now become a key player in international negotiations and has begun implementing a diverse portfolio of policies, nationally and within individual states, to improve energy efficiency, develop clean sources of energy and prepare for the impacts of climate change.
Conclusion
Global warming is not only a concern to one State it’s a global problem and we all suffer from it. It’s mankind problem we all have to deal with it. The main reason for global warming is Industrialisation. There are many rules all over the world to deal with it.
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Law Regulating Global Warming in India
