Plants and animals:
Research also suggests that the varieties of plants grown in the UK will also be affected by global warming. Areas of growing maize and arable crops (farmable or growable or whatever crops) will shift toward the north and midlands. And the hot summers could also be a real boost to the British wine industry as more fruits will grow in hotter areas.
Warmer seas around the UK are likely to attract fish that, up until now, have favored more southern waters. Recently fishermen have reported seeing surprising numbers of mullet, anchovies and various species of shark.
Some birds, fish and land animals are under threat as their environment changes due to temperature changes. Some of these species will not be able to adapt to these changes in their environment.
There are already changes to the way plants and animals live in this country. The period between spring and autumn when plants grow is now about a month longer in central England than it was in around 1900.
Farmers are scared of insects eating more of their farms as insects increase in hotter weather. Life will be much harder in hotter weather because people will not be comfortable with the insects flying among them all the time.
- That is a good point because we need to have arguments with other countries in the conference, so please include it!!! ( the underlined text)
But whatever climate change occurs in the UK we can be sure that other parts of the world will be far worse off.
"We certainly have the resources to cope with it," says Prof Jones.
"We are better off than a lot of people."
The cost of climate change
The Association of British Insurers estimates that UK households will pay up to four per cent extra each year due to extreme weather events.
Diseases:
A report released by the British government warned the country’s National Health System to expect thousands more deaths and complications from heatwaves, malaria, and contaminated water( polluted water) as progress in the next five years.
How is UK tackling the climate change?
Making deep cuts in our own carbon dioxide emissions of at least 40% by 2020 and more than 80% by 2050, without resorting to offsets, and in addition supporting developing countries towards low-carbon development and a green economy.
Delivering on an ambitious, fair and binding global deal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
Actively promoting small and large scale renewable energy projects.
The Government’s response to climate change:
The government has set or agreed a number of targets to reduce releases of Greenhouse gases. They include:
• Reduce the UK's carbon dioxide emissions by 20% from a 1990 baseline by the year
2010.
• Reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 60 per cent by about 2050 with real progress by 2020, as recommended by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (The Energy White Paper 2003).
• As part of the Kyoto Protocol, the UK has also agreed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
• In March 2005 EU Heads of State agreed greenhouse gases must be reduced by 15-30 per cent by 2020 from 1990 levels
- Hint: the previous three points look the same but they are different agreements so u can summarize them in one point in your power point)
• Produce 10 per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2010 and 15 per cent by 2015, with an aspiration (hope)of 20 per cent by 2020.
• Provide 10,000 MW of combined heat and power by 2010.
- Promoting good energy: we are trying to use energy which is safer for the environment and has less gad emissions.
- Energy efficient light bulb: if the all the UK make the change from the current light bulbs to the energy efficient ones, the UK could cut its carbon emissions by over 5 million tonnes. If the energy efficient ones use five times less energy, last 12 times longer and could save UK consumers £1.2 billion.
- Aviation: the UK asks its citizens to shorten their use of aviation industry and travel by trains when it comes to short distance trips. Since the aviation industry is using lots of resources to make airports, airplanes... etc.
- Road transport: the UK government made the taxes much higher for the vehicles that produce much gas emissions and took a promise form the cars manufactories to improve their products to more environment-friendly products.
- The UK government is working on shorten the use of coal and provide the alternatives by doing investigations and campaigns to aware the inhabitants of the coal danger on the environment.
What UK wants to achieve from this conference?
The UK government wants South Africa to reduce its gas emissions because they affect us in an indirect way since they have a high level of gas emissions. We want USA to manufacture more friendly-environment cars! Otherwise we will cut off all means of importing cars form USA. We want Australia to maintain the good work and to not get obsessed by the industrial world and forget the environmental issues just like what we did so we hope you can learn from our mistakes. We want the USA to start working toward tackling the climate change as they have big authorities and “we need actions not verbal speeches”!!! STOP TALKING!
