As involving to climatic system, the high concentration of greenhouse gases in the air will lead to higher temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, also known as Global Warming. Global warming not only has much negative impact on the environment such as polar ice melts, sea level rise, floods and droughts, typhoons, but also threaten human lives
Contemporary Issues in Tourism What can you/we to minimize the impacts of climate change? Nowadays, the most significant evidences of climate change derived from sea level rise, ice declining, extreme climate events and global warming From the science perspective, the main reason cause climate change is a greenhouse effect For more detail, the greenhouse effect is a process where short-wave solar radiation heats the Earth’s surface and the energy is radiated back to the space as long-wave heat, absorbed by a certain composition of the atmosphere called greenhouse gases The primary greenhouse gases include water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and other chemicals such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) [ CITATION Raf11 \l 5129 ] Although the greenhouse gas is a very important component of our planet as it keeps the earth warm enough for life exist, the increasing amount of greenhouse gases today will damage the planet [ CITATION Gre13 \l 5129 ] As involving to climatic system, the high concentration of greenhouse gases in the air will lead to higher temperature of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, also known as Global Warming Global warming not only has much negative impact on the environment such as polar ice melts, sea level rise, floods and droughts, typhoons, but also threaten human lives [ CITATION Cli \l 5129 ] In terms of minimizing the impact of climate change, we need to find the solution to reduce the greenhouse gases in the air There are two dominant strategies called mitigation and adaptation Climate change mitigation refers to lower emission of greenhouse gases that mainly reduce carbon dioxide, which accounts for the highest percentage (72%) of greenhouse gases [ CITATION KSh10 \l 5129 ] The most recent report of the Contemporary Issues in Tourism Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that since the Industrial Revolution in 1750, human activity has changed the concentration of certain greenhouse gases in the atmosphere There is a dramatically raising in amounts of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere over the past 1,000 years, with the most rapid increase occurring over the past fifty years [ CITATION Cub13 \l 5129 ] In general, to reduce the ultimate extent of climate change and its impact, it is essential to have global responsibility Basically, by utilizing the energy sources that don't release greenhouse gases and increase the energy efficiency of our homes and offices, and driving less, we can reduce our effect on the climate and limit the change To some extent, regarding to transportation, use public transport or non-motorized transport such as walking, cycling not only reduce pollution but also save our money Moreover, there are many new advanced vehicles such as hybrid vehicle, cleaner diesel vehicles, and higher efficiency aircraft as well has invented to reduce air pollution, lower CO2 emission [ CITATION Car \l 5129 ] Refer to energy supply, nowadays, oil, diesel, coal and fuel are used as the main source of production in our live; so to limit the expansion of carbon dioxide, we need to change our behavior in energy using There are a number of alternative energy source which efficiently produce electricity compare to coal and gas such as hydro energy, geothermal energy, wind, solar and marine energy [ CITATION Gre \l 5129 ] For example, New Zealand as a leader in change to use green and clean energy, today, nearly 73 per cent of New Zealand’s electricity is generated from renewable sources and the remaining 27 per cent is conducted from non-renewable sources such as gas and coal The New Zealand’s Contemporary Issues in Tourism government aim to change to renewable sources for 90 per cent by 2050 [CITATION Min07 \n \l 5129 ] Other concerning relates to forestry, it should be emphasized that forest has a vital role in protecting humanity Forestry delivers many environmental benefits As trees and plants grow, they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it as wood [ CITATION For14 \l 5129 ] As a consequence, it's necessary to have a strict management in protect and conserve forest, reduce deforestation, harvested wood management, tree species improvement to increase biomass productivity and carbon sequestration [ CITATION Vit10 \l 5129 ] For daily routine, as a lot of little things make a big change, each individual person can contribute to decrease climate change impact by reducing waste by choosing reusable products instead of disposables And if it's possible, we should recycle newspaper, glass, plastic and aluminum cans By recycling half of household waste, we can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide annually [CITATION Tex10 \n \l 1033 ] Nevertheless, due to a lag between increased greenhouse gas emissions and increased warming, even if greenhouse gas emissions stopped today, it would take a long time for the effects of human-caused climate change to disappear So adaptation is a crucial issue go along with mitigation to minimize the climate change As a result, we need to change our behavior to make living conditions suitable with changing climate There are some strategies has implemented, for instance, building new public works such as sewers, bridges to deal with changes in rainfall and flooding, protect national park as well as forest, building sea walls and moving away from the dangerous coastal area in order to avoid the natural calamity [CITATION eIn07 \l 5129 ] One major thing that can be done about Contemporary Issues in Tourism climate change is to raise the society’s awareness about the importance of the ecosystem as well as lead them to understand how human behavior harm to the Earth Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) is helping countries respond to this challenge, primarily by encouraging them to set up public health systems as the first line of defense against climate-related health risks [ CITATION Cli14 \l 5129 ] In conclusion, climate change is not only an environmental problem but also expand to larger scale as economy and social issue [ CITATION Sco11 \l 1033 ], affect every part of the community; thus the response to climate change is involved to whole societies Ideally, by reducing the impact and adapting to climate change, the present generation will not only save themselves and enhance life quality, but also benefit future generations through their foresight and suitable planning References Car pollution (n.d.) Retrieved from ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION UK: http://www.environmental- Contemporary Issues in Tourism protection.org.uk/committees/air-quality/air-pollution-andtransport/car-pollution/ Climate change and health (2014) Retrieved from World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/ Climate change: How we know? (n.d.) Retrieved from Global Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/ Cubasch, U D., Chen, D., Facchini, M., Frame, D., Mahowald, N., & Winther, J.-G (2013) : Introduction In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press Development, M o (2007) New Zealand Energy Strategy to 2050: Powering Our Future: Towards a sustainable low emissions energy system Wellington Forests, jungles, woods & their trees (2014) Retrieved from WWF Global: http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/about_forests/ Green energy (n.d.) Retrieved from Consumer power switch Website: https://www.powerswitch.org.nz/powerswitch/siteinfo/powerswitch-faqs/green-energy Greenhouse Gas Concentrations in Atmosphere Reach New Record (2013, 11 6) Retrieved from World Meteorological Organization: http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_9 80_en.html Contemporary Issues in Tourism Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007) Climate Change 2007:Summary for Policymakers e Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rafferty, J P (2011) Climate and climate change New York: Britannica Educational Pub in association with Rosen Educational Services Scott, D (2011, 11) Why sustainable tourism must address climate change ? Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 19(1), 17-34 Shenbagakulalyoymozhi, K (2010) Carbon Guidelines – Who is Responsible? Kuala Lumpur: E-Leader Singapore University, T A (2010) 10 Simple Ways To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint Retrieved from Biofuel: http://biofuel.tamu.edu/publications/tensteps.pdf Vital rule of forest in climate change (2010) General Interest Periodicals Sri Lanka Retrieved from http://ezproxy.aut.ac.nz/login? url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/435121027? accountid=8440 ... area in order to avoid the natural calamity [CITATION eIn07 l 5129 ] One major thing that can be done about Contemporary Issues in Tourism climate change is to raise the society’s awareness about