Earth Day 2010

‘‘There are five kinds of people who one must listen to and respect – knowledgeable people, pious people, close friends, well educated people and the elderly. Such a person will never tread along wrong path due to ignorance.’’ — Mahabharatha, Udyoga

For long we are reading and gearing about the Global Warming. Warning bells are sounding, but really how many of us are aware that April 22, 2010 is designated as Earth Day? Sadly, only few of us will be doing something to justify this date. Do we really care about this slowly dying planet?  There is a lot of hoopla about Global warming. We use this term to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate forever. The scientific consensus on climatic changes related to global warming says that the average temperature of the Earth has risen between 0.4 and 0.8 °C over the past 100 years. The increased volumes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases released by the burning of fossil fuels, land clearing, agriculture, and other human activities, are believed to be the primary sources of the global warming that has occurred over the past 50 years. ‘Intergovernmental Panel on Climate’ is carrying out global warming research for a long time. Scientists associated with it, have predicted that average global temperatures could increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by the year 2100. Changes resulting from global warming may include rising sea levels due to the melting of the polar ice caps, as well as an increase in occurrence and severity of storms and other severe weather events. Satellite data revealed for the first time that global warming could devastate key marine life. The decade-long analysis showed that as the surface water of the oceans warmed up, phytoplankton biomass declined.  Earth is dying, seas are dying—population is growing. There is a bleak future await us. All of us fighting for a piece of this earth and our next generations are going to pay a heavy price for being selfish.