Brazilian artist Nelly Azavedo had a very interesting action in Berlin. He made a thousand little men from the ice, and then left them to melt on the steps of Berlin’s Concert Hall.

image credit: REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz

However, the negative impacts of the greenhouse effect on the World’s climate change are being observed already through the overall effect in constant annual temperature increases.

Overall the effects of global warming have proved to be disturbing, a prominent example is the increasing levels of acidity being detected in sea water due to increased evaporation levels. This could trigger off a long term reaction that could bring catastrophic effects on the marine food chain.

Changes to the polar ice packs and glaciers are occurring on an ongoing basis, and scientific evidence has proven that these areas are warming up at a much more rapid rate than the global average. The frightening statistic is temperatures in the far north have by between 5-7 degrees Celsius in the last 50 years. No need to say that if the greenhouse effect continues at this level then we can expect a catastrophe of global promotions, and sometime within the next twenty to fifty years.

Rainfall has decreased dramatically over the last decade, with drought conditions being felt in Western Australia and the deep south of America, where just a few years ago this situation was unheard of.

Shortages of drinking water has become a way of life for billions throughout the World, and with populations rising, this will soon reach epidemic proportions.
Water for agriculture is also in increasingly short supply due to the greenhouse effect, bringing with it shortage of the most basic food supplies.

There is no doubt that the greenhouse effect has changed our lives, and will affect the lives of our children and our grandchildren even more so. Awareness of the problem is in the increase and technological advances may go a long way to curtailing it in the future. Let us hop for our future that mankind will be able to halt if not reverse the damage being done to the World’s climate through the greenhouse effect.

Global warming has been directly attributed to the hole in the ozone layer which is causing the heating up of the earth’s atmosphere from the sun. This is commonly referred to as the greenhouse effect. It is said that if the hole in the ozone layer continues to grow, global warming could accelerate quite dramatically. This is why many countries have come together and signed agreements to cut down on fuel emissions into the atmosphere and use various other forms of energy that are safe for the ozone layer.

Other causes that are considered to be contributing factors to the increase in the temperatures of the atmosphere are volcano eruptions since the mid 20th century and solar variations. Global warming will have other effects on  the world as we know it, and

as one part of the climate changes, so other changes will occur. The average temperature of the earth has increased dramatically in the last decade or so, and as the temperatures get warmer, so the sea level will rise causing a difference in the amounts of precipitation that occur. This could mean that extreme weather conditions will develop like excessive storms with heavier rainfall and others. There is also expected to be slower summer stream flow, a difference in agricultural growth and harvest, as well as certain extinction of animal and plant species.

Most of the major scientific institutions blame the greenhouse effect and the greenhouse gases for the increase in global warming. The main greenhouse gases are methane, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. While water vapor and methane are not present for very long in the earth’s atmosphere, carbon dioxide can remain in the atmosphere for many years and when combined with the water vapor can escalate the rate at which global warming takes place. What happens is that the carbon dioxide increases the potency of the short term water vapor that is evaporated, which in turn causes more warming, and the cycle continues. This is the feedback effect and the only way to stop global warming is to remove the carbon dioxide that is present in the atmosphere already and definitely not add more to it.