Climate change - Dissertation Example

Climate change is the biggest environmental problem that the world is facing today. High-intensity storms and hurricanes are hitting the United States and Australia, ice sheets in the Arctic and Antarctic regions are rapidly melting and severe droughts in Indonesia have resulted in fires razing the nation’s forests to the ground. Apart from direct destructive impacts to the environment, global warming also poses a threat to human health. Increasing amounts of rainfall will give rise to the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Despite the overwhelmingly negative effects of climate change, current trends still reflect rising levels of temperature. Out of the 20 hottest years on the planet, 19 occurred from 1980 until the present. According to NASA, 2005 was the warmest year recorded for over a century (Gutro, 2006). Human activity is the primary cause of this drastic increase in the world’s temperature. The burning of fossil fuels to meet the energy demands of households, businesses, and industries is number one on the list of greenhouse gas emissions.

The world’s total energy consumption is directly proportional to population levels. Simply put, the more people there are, more of world’s resources are utilized. Sustainable development is key to ensure future generations’ survival. The Kyoto Protocol aims to provide a solution the pressing problem of climate change. The United Kingdom being one of the signatories has committed to reducing carbon emissions significantly by the year 2010 (Wikipedia, 2006). . Increasing amounts of rainfall will give rise to the spread of vector-borne diseases.

Despite the overwhelming negative effects of climate change, current trends still reflect rising levels of temperature. Out of the 20 hottest years of the planet, 19 occurred from 1980 until the present.ivAccording to NASA, 2005 was the warmest year recorded for over a century (Gutro, 2006)v.Human activity is the primary cause of this drastic increase of the world's temperature. The burning of fossil fuels to meet the energy demands of households, businesses and industries is number one on the list of greenhouse gas emissions.

The world's total energy consumption is directly proportional to population levels. Simply put, the more people there are, more of world's resources are utilized. Sustainable development is key to ensure future generations' survival.The Kyoto Protocol aims to provide a solution the pressing problem of climate change. The United Kingdom, being one of the signatories, has committed to reduce carbon emissions significantly by the year 2010 (Wikipedia, 2006)vi. This has given rise to several policies that the government has authored in order to meet the set target.

This paper focuses on energy efficiency and the introduction of renewable energy as two of the solutions that the United Kingdom's construction sector have given attention to. The effectiveness of regulations in place will be studied to see if these would be adequate to significantly decrease the country's carbon emissions.Emerging insights from adaptive and community-based resource management suggest that building resilience into both human and ecological systems is an effective way to cope with environmental change characterized by future surprises or unknowable risks. We