Nomadic Penan leader and son, Sarawak rainforest in Malaysia.

Ancient forests are in crisis throughout the world. Home to millions and a haven for nature's diversity of plants and animals, the last remnants of un-touched forest are facing extinction.
Ancient forests maintain the balance of life on Earth. They house around two-thirds of the world's land-based species of plants and animals. The remaining tracts of forests influence day-to-day weather and they also help keep the climate stable over time by storing massive amounts of carbon. Logging and burning forests releases that carbon to the atmosphere and creates global warming and climate change. Major international climate negotiations will decide whether we can keep global warming at less that 2ºC average temperature rise, the safe level recommended by the United Nations. To do this, we have to stop deforestation right now.

‘Forests for Climate’ is a way to get international funding to protect remaining tropical forests and help stop climate change for all the Earth’s people.

Problem
Logging and burning of tropical forests creates about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than that emitted from all the cars, planes, and trains in the world. But countries in South America, Africa and the Pacific do not have enough of their own money to protect these large tracts of tropical forests. The forests keep the climate in balance.

Solution
The Forests for Climate is a proposal that keeps forests safe and encourages developed countries to really cut CO2 at home. Forests for Climate lets developed countries meet overall targets and provides fair and accountable way to fund global forest protection.

We need to stay below 2°C

We are actually very close to tipping points in the world’s climate system. Once a tipping point has been reached a feedback process takes over and it would be nearly impossible to slow it down. Scientists believe that such tipping points could be for example the physical break up of landbound Greenland, the massive release of methane trapped in the permafrost, the die-back of the Amazon rainforest from heat, drought, and fires. the slowing down of the Northern Atlantic circulation etc.

To avoid these tipping points that will cause dangerous and irreversible climate change, the IPCC says that the rise in global average temperature should not be more than 2°C (3.4°F) warmer than it was in pre-industrial times (around 1800).It has already been shown that a rise of 2°C would bring with it a set of devastating impacts to coral reefs, Arctic systems and local communities. The Earth cannot afford to go above this....and this means rapidly cutting greenhouse gas emissions far below current levels. We must start reducing emissions now and stay on a low emissions track to avoid loading the atmosphere with too much CO2. In scientific terms this means staying well below a CO2 concentration level of 450ppm (parts per million) in the atmosphere.

Climate change - An Overview

Climate change is with us. Sea levels are rising, ice is melting, temperatures are increasing, and the consequences are major This is not “just” about polar bears and pandas anymore, it’s about us humans and our survival. We need to act now and 2009 needs to be remembered as the year the world found an answer to climate change.



What is climate change?

We know the world is warming, global average temperature has increased by 0.74°C during the past century, with most of that since 1970.Human-made CO2 is responsible for the vast majority of the warming. Concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere are now almost 40 per cent above those of 200 years ago and emissions to the atmosphere have been rising by more than 2 per cent a year since 2000. This extra greenhouse gas stems overwhelmingly from humans burning fossil fuels and destroying forests, both of which contain carbon, which gets released as CO2 in the atmosphere.

Climate change will increasingly cause storms, droughts, floods and fires and have severe impacts on food production, water availability and ecosystems such as forests and wetlands. A major concern is how rapidly climate change will magnify existing environmental stresses and contribute to food insecurity, conflict over resources, and loss of livelihood for millions of people.

Certain regions will be worse affected than others. Global warming is expected to be greatest over land and at high northern latitudes. The Arctic, Sub Saharan Africa, small islands and the big river deltas of Asia will be most seriously affected. These regions house some of the poorest populations on earth, who are the least well equipped to deal with the consequences of climate change.

8 Ways to Conserve Our Planet


Here are eight easy energy saving tips to reduce pollution, increase fuel efficiency, and save water.\

1. Green Electricity: One compact fluorescent light bulb could save you $30-$40 during its lifetime. It can also save 34 gallons of oil, 2.8 pounds of smog, and 850 pounds of carbon dioxide.

2. Recycle: Reuse or recycle glass jars, aluminum, and plastics. The more you recycle, the less goes into landfills.

3. Watch the Temperature: When you are home, keep your thermostat at 78 degrees during the warm months, and in the winter keep it at 68 degrees.

4. Drive Less: Check the traffic reports before you leave, no use sitting in traffic. If you cannot avoid driving, consider a fuel efficient car.

5. Use the Switch: turn off lights and the TV when you leave the room. Conserve energy by turning off used electronics or equipments in your office.

6. Check for Leaky Faucets: Check pipes and faucets for leaks and drips. Use low-flow shower heads, it could save you over 2 gallons per minute.

7. Load the Washer: Only do laundry or run the dish washer when it is full. Careful to use the proper amount of soap, using extra soap requires more water to rinse. During the summer, try drying clothing on a line.

8. Tune your Engine: When a car is not properly tuned, it emits more pollution, waste gas, and lowers engine performance.

PLEASE RECYCLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Recycling Is Important, you may ask. Recycling is reusing materials in original or changed forms rather than discarding them as wastes. In reusing material or changing material into new materials rather than throwing it away the environment as well as we benefit from it.

Why Is Recycling Important?

Some benefits include: saving energy, saving land space, saving money, creating new jobs, reducing air and water pollution and preserving habitat for wildlife. That's why recycling is important and you should take a closer look at your life and how your recycle materials used in your daily life.

It Saves Energy!

It takes less energy to process recycled materials than it does to use virgin materials. For example, it takes less energy to recycle paper from waste material than it does to create paper from new woodland, because there is no longer a need to cut down a new tree, process the wood from the tree and make it into paper. What is so important about saving energy through recycling? Energy from non-renewable resources is protected and saved for future generations, money is saved when less energy is used (this can also mean more competitively priced goods) and often pollution and emissions are reduced when less energy is used. For example, production of recycled paper uses 80% less water and 65% less energy, and produces 95% less air pollution than virgin paper production.

It Save Money and Land Space!

Recycling reduces trash in landfill sites, which cuts down on the cost of waste disposal and the clearing of more land for new landfills when the current landfills become too full to store any more waste. Recycling is an easy and less expensive alternative to clearing more land for new landfills. For example, composting, recycling kitchen waste and yard waste into compost provides a means of free nutritious soil for gardening. In addition, most waste is not biodegradable. Its stays in the landfills for years to come, just sitting there and piling up with the rest of the trash. Recycling would allow us to reuse the materials over and over again.

It Air Pollution and Water Pollution!

Decomposing waste often release noxious gases and chemicals as it decomposes at landfill sites. These gas and chemicals create air pollution Air pollution is exactly what it sounds like, polluted air. When the chemicals leach into the groundwater this creates water pollution and our water is contaminated. In 2000, recycling of solid waste prevented the release of 32.9 million metric tons of carbon equivalent (MMTCE, the unit of measure for greenhouse gases) into the air.
Imagine how much pollution we could prevent if instead of landfills we had recycling centers. We could breathe cleaner air and drink cleaner water.

It Creates Jobs!

Recycling in the U.S. is a $236 billion a year industry. More than 56,000 recycling and reuse enterprises employ 1.1 million workers nationwide. If we created more recycling opportunities we would create more jobs and no one would have to loose their jobs either.

IT IS OUR OBLIGATION, AS CARETAKERS OF THIS EARTH, TO RESPECT AND CONSERVE OUR NATURAL RESOURCES. PLEASE DO YOUR PART TODAY.


Our Fragile Planet...
We all live on our planet Earth, and the majority of us just seem to consume and destroy instead of giving back to our planet and making sure it stays in great condition for future generations!It is something that bothers me and that is why I hope to create awareness about this issue!

SAVE ENERGY!!!!!!!!!!!

SAVE WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!

SAVE WILD LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!

SAVE THE MOTHER EARTH

GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.
The global average air temperature near the Earth's surface rose 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 year period ending in 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations" via the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with the conclusions of the IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change are in agreement with the conclusions.