On May 15, the world celebrates International Climate Day. The establishment of this unofficial environmental holiday was a response to the call of meteorologists to protect the climate as an important resource affecting the well-being of current and future generations.
Climate conservation – is one of the global challenges facing humanity today. Global warming, increased ozone content in the atmospheric layer, natural disasters, changes in weather conditions on planet – all this leads to a deterioration in the Earth's climate and, as a result, has a negative impact on the food, life and property security of people, and has a deplorable effect on the state of natural resources and balanced development of states.
Over the past 35 years alone, climate change on the planet has accelerated sharply, and almost every year it sets new temperature records.
Modern sciences cannot answer the question of how quickly catastrophic climate change will occur in the event of a further increase in temperature on Earth. However, according to environmentalists and meteorologists, humanity is quite capable of delaying these changes.
The main problems that lead to irreversible climate change on the planet include increasing the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This phenomenon was first discussed at the world level in 1992 – at the so-called Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Representatives from more than 180 countries (including Russia and the countries of the former USSR) signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This agreement defined the general principles of state action aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at a level that does not threaten the Earth's climate system with global anthropogenic impact.
It's not that hard to contribute... (Photo: Sergey Nivens, licensed from Shutterstock.com)
At the end of 1997, at the third conference of the parties to the UNFCCC, held in Kyoto (Japan), in addition to the Convention, the already famous Kyoto Protocol – international document was adopted, obliging developed countries and countries with economies in transition to reduce or stabilize greenhouse gas emissions in 2008–2012 compared to 1990.
10 years later, in December 2007, another UN conference dedicated to climate change issues was held in Bali (Indonesia). Its participants – representatives of more than 190 – states signed an international agreement calling on world leaders to take the necessary measures to ensure that the commercial and industrial sector reduces carbon dioxide emissions.
The preservation of the Earth's climate also depends on every inhabitant of the planet. It's not that difficult to contribute. To do this, you can, for example, use a car less often, use energy-saving lighting sources in your apartment, participate in tree plantings and protect green spaces. It would seem like little things... But these «little things», multiplied by the population of the planet, acquire enormous significance.
• Infographics – poster «May 15 — International Climate Day»
• Article «When the Planet Gets Angry: Terrible Climate Disasters in Human History»