climate change : hoax or reality.!!

There has been increase in public awareness about issues related to climate change and the steps needed to mitigate the impact of climate change. However,its not for the first time that the surface temperature of the earth has increased. Our earth has faced several cycles when the temperature of the earth has risen on account of changes in solar activity and such events have often been accompanied with fall in temperatures which resulted in ice ages. The last ice age on this earth occured around 10000 BC. Therefore , we need to be sure whether the recent increase in earth's temperature is due to human activity or some natural phenomena. Otherwise, we may end up spending huge sums of money trying to tame some unknown phenomena.

However, recent evidences indicate that human activity is one of the primary reason behind the increase in earth's temperature in the last couple of decades and these are largely attributed to the growing presence of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. We need to take steps to avoid our reliance on fossil fuels and there should be binding emissions norms for industrialized countries of the world. On the other hand, more funds should be allocated to research activities for the development of renewable sources of energy. The kyoto protocol was a significant step in this regard and the entire world is banking on the Copenhagen summit in Dec, 2009 for some concrete outcomes whereby different countries are given targets for reduction in their greenhouse gases depending upon their abilities. Otherwise, the day is not far off when our greed for development will become one of the reasons for the destruction of human species.