What is Climate Change? What are the religious responses to destruction of the environment?
- (task 1)Research and create a fact file about Climate Change explaining what it is and its effects. To do this fact file research visit The Royal Society and DEFRA.
- (task 2) Research the religious attitudes and religious responses to destruction of the environment at GCSE bitsesize and BBC Religion and Ethics. Include references to Earth Summits (a meeting of representatives of different countries including religious leaders).
- The first Earth Summit happened in Rio de Janeiro (1992) topics of discussion pollution, deforestation and the growing scarcity of water. It produced Agenda 21, a plan to save the planet in the 21st century. The plan urged countries to find alternative sources of energy, to protect animal and planet species and promote sustainable development. Countries also agreed to keep greenhouse gas emissions at a steady level.
- The second Earth Summit happened in Kyoto (1997). It was agreed a "Kyoto Protocol" where countries promised to cut their CO2 and other greenhouse emissions. They agreed to cut down carbon emissions. If they merely maintained or actually increased their emissions, they agreed to carbon trading - paying another country with low emissions to offset their own.
- The third Earth Summit happened in Johannesburg (2002). This world summit on sustainable development discussed the problems of the poor, particularly the two billion people who live without clean water. The summit was also concern about the loss of many animal and plant species, and the reduced numbers of fish in the sea. The 185 countries that attended agreed to work hard to combat these problems by 2015.
- After agreeing to cut carbon emissions at the Earth Summits, governments had to put their promises into action. The British Government published a draft Climate Change Bill in March 2007. This promised a 60 per cent cut (from 1990 levels) in carbon emissions by 2050 and a 26 to 32 per cent reduction by 2020. The Bill is legally binding. These are challenging targets that some say will not be achieved at the current level of effort.
- Visit Kew, Worldlandtrust and Eden project for more information.
* Please save your work and email me (either powerpoint presentation or .doc Good work gets 5 merits! :-)
