query: Therefore human emissions upset the natural balance, rising CO2 to levels not seen in at least 800,000 years.

positive: Carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a colorless gas with a density about 60 % higher than that of air ( 1.225 g/L ) that is odorless at normally encountered concentrations . Carbon dioxide consists of a carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms . It occurs naturally in Earth 's atmosphere as a trace gas at a concentration of about 0.04 percent ( 400 ppm ) by volume . Natural sources include volcanoes , hot springs and geysers , and it is freed from carbonate rocks by dissolution in water and acids . Because carbon dioxide is soluble in water , it occurs naturally in groundwater , rivers and lakes , ice caps , glaciers and seawater . It is present in deposits of petroleum and natural gas .   As the source of available carbon in the carbon cycle , atmospheric carbon dioxide is the primary carbon source for life on Earth and its concentration in Earth 's pre-industrial atmosphere since late in the Precambrian has been regulated by photosynthetic organisms and geological phenomena . Plants , algae and cyanobacteria use light energy to photosynthesize carbohydrate from carbon dioxide and water , with oxygen produced as a waste product .   Carbon dioxide is produced by all aerobic organisms when they metabolize carbohydrates and lipids to produce energy by respiration . It is returned to water via the gills of fish and to the air via the lungs of air-breathing land animals , including humans . Carbon dioxide is produced during the processes of decay of organic materials and the fermentation of sugars in bread , beer and winemaking . It is produced by combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal , peat , petroleum and natural gas .   It is a versatile industrial material , used , for example , as an inert gas in welding and fire extinguishers , as a pressurizing gas in air guns and oil recovery , as a chemical feedstock and in liquid form as a solvent in decaffeination of coffee and supercritical drying . It is added to drinking water and carbonated beverages including beer and sparkling wine to add effervescence . The frozen solid form of , known as `` dry ice '' is used as a refrigerant and as an abrasive in dry-ice blasting .   Carbon dioxide is the most significant long-lived greenhouse gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Since the Industrial Revolution anthropogenic emissions - primarily from use of fossil fuels and deforestation - have rapidly increased its concentration in the atmosphere , leading to global warming . Carbon dioxide also causes ocean acidification because it dissolves in water to form carbonic acid .

positive: Greenhouse gas A greenhouse gas ( abbrev . GHG ) is a gas in an atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range . This process is the fundamental cause of the greenhouse effect . The primary greenhouse gases in Earth 's atmosphere are water vapor , carbon dioxide , methane , nitrous oxide , and ozone . Without greenhouse gases , the average temperature of Earth 's surface would be about -18 ° C , rather than the present average of 15 ° C . In the Solar System , the atmospheres of Venus , Mars and Titan also contain gases that cause a greenhouse effect .   Human activities since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution ( taken as the year 1750 ) have produced a 40 % increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide , from 280 ppm in 1750 to 406 ppm in early 2017 . This increase has occurred despite the uptake of a large portion of the emissions by various natural `` sinks '' involved in the carbon cycle . Anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions ( i.e. , emissions produced by human activities ) come from combustion of fossil fuels , principally coal , oil , and natural gas , along with deforestation , soil erosion and animal agriculture .   It has been estimated that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the present rate , Earth 's surface temperature could exceed historical values as early as 2047 , with potentially harmful effects on ecosystems , biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide . Recent estimates suggest that on the current emissions trajectory the Earth could pass a threshold of 2 ° C global warming , which the United Nations ' IPCC designated as the upper limit to avoid `` dangerous '' global warming , by 2036 .

positive: Carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere Carbon dioxide is an important trace gas in Earth 's atmosphere . Currently it constitutes about 0.041 % ( equal to 410 parts per million ; ppm ) by volume of the atmosphere . Despite its relatively small concentration is a potent greenhouse gas and plays a vital role in regulating Earth 's surface temperature through radiative forcing and the greenhouse effect . Reconstructions show that concentrations of in the atmosphere have varied , ranging from as high as 7,000 ppm during the Cambrian period about 500 million years ago to as low as 180 ppm during the Quaternary glaciation of the last two million years .   Carbon dioxide is an integral part of the carbon cycle , a biogeochemical cycle in which carbon is exchanged between the Earth 's oceans , soil , rocks and the biosphere . Plants and other photoautotrophs use solar energy to produce carbohydrate from atmospheric carbon dioxide and water by photosynthesis . Almost all other organisms depend on carbohydrate derived from photosynthesis as their primary source of energy and carbon compounds .   The current episode of global warming is attributed to increasing emissions of and other greenhouse gases into Earth 's atmosphere . The global annual mean concentration of in the atmosphere has increased by more than 40 % since the start of the Industrial Revolution , from 280 ppm , the level it had for the last 10,000 years leading up to the mid-18th century , to 399 ppm as of 2015 . The present concentration is the highest in at least the past 800,000 years and likely the highest in the past 20 million years . The increase has been caused by anthropogenic sources , particularly the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation . The daily average concentration of atmospheric CO2 at Mauna Loa Observatory first exceeded 400 ppm on 10 May 2013 . It is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2 ppm/year and accelerating . An estimated 30 -- 40 % of the released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans , rivers and lakes , which contributes to ocean acidification .

positive: Global warming Global warming , also referred to as climate change , is the observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth 's climate system and its related effects . Multiple lines of scientific evidence show that the climate system is warming . Many of the observed changes since the 1950s are unprecedented in the instrumental temperature record which extends back to the mid 19th century , and in paleoclimate proxy records over thousands of years .   In 2013 , the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) Fifth Assessment Report concluded that `` It is extremely likely that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century . '' The largest human influence has been emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide , methane and nitrous oxide . Climate model projections summarized in the report indicated that during the 21st century the global surface temperature is likely to rise a further 0.3 to for their lowest emissions scenario and 2.6 to for the highest emissions scenario . These findings have been recognized by the national science academies of the major industrialized nations and are not disputed by any scientific body of national or international standing .   Future climate change and associated impacts will differ from region to region around the globe . Anticipated effects include warming global temperature , rising sea levels , changing precipitation , and expansion of deserts in the subtropics . Warming is expected to be greater over land than over the oceans and greatest in the Arctic , with the continuing retreat of glaciers , permafrost and sea ice . Other likely changes include more frequent extreme weather events including heat waves , droughts , heavy rainfall with floods and heavy snowfall ; ocean acidification ; and species extinctions due to shifting temperature regimes . Effects significant to humans include the threat to food security from decreasing crop yields and the abandonment of populated areas due to rising sea levels . Because the climate system has a large `` inertia '' and greenhouse gases will stay in the atmosphere for a long time , many of these effects will not only exist for decades or centuries , but will persist for tens of thousands of years .   Possible societal responses to global warming include mitigation by emissions reduction , adaptation to its effects , building systems resilient to its effects , and possible future climate engineering . Most countries are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) ,  whose ultimate objective is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic climate change . Parties to the UNFCCC have agreed that deep cuts in emissions are required and that global warming should be limited to well below 2.0 C-change relative to pre-industrial levels , with efforts made to limit warming to 1.5 C-change .   Public reactions to global warming and concern about its effects are also increasing . A global 2015 Pew Research Center report showed a median of 54 % consider it `` a very serious problem '' . There are significant regional differences , with Americans and Chinese ( whose economies are responsible for the greatest annual CO2 emissions ) among the least concerned .

negative: Climate change in the United Kingdom Climate change in the United Kingdom has been a subject of protests and controversies and various policies have been developed to mitigate its effects . It is estimated to demand at least 80-85 % emission reductions in the EU during 2008-2050 with reductions as soon as technically possible . The UK Government has a commitment to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by 80 % on 1990 levels by 2025 and by 50 % on 1990 levels by 2050 .

negative: Low-carbon emission The main components of automobile exhaust are carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) and water vapor ( H2O ) . Carbon dioxide is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas ( GHG ) and the most significant Greenhouse Gas emitted in the U.S. ( with 82-84 % of all U.S. emissions ) . Increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change .   The CO2 emission standards can be referred to the fuel or to the vehicle :   The European Union is moving towards fuel mandatory CO2 standards and USA has reflected it in the Greenhouse Gas Score .  There are information , but no mandatory , standards for CO2 limits in vehicle ( engine ) emissions , excepting some state regulations ( i.e. California ) . See hybrid vehicles .   CO2 mass emission in vehicles is measured in g/km ( g/mi * 0.621371192 = g/km ) .

negative: The Greening of Planet Earth The Greening of Planet Earth is a half-hour-long video produced by the coal industry , which argues that rising CO2 levels will be beneficial to agriculture , and that policies intending to reduce CO2 levels are therefore misguided . The video argues that rising CO2 levels both directly stimulate plant growth and , as a result of their warming properties , cause winter temperatures to rise , thereby indirectly stimulating plant growth . It was produced in 1991 and released the following year . A sequel , entitled , The Greening of Planet Earth Continues , was released in 1998 . The video was narrated by Sherwood Idso . After the video was made , it was distributed to thousands of journalists by a coal industry group . The video became very popular viewing in the George H. W. Bush White House and elsewhere in Washington , where it was promoted before the 1992 Earth Summit , and , according to some reports , became especially popular with then-chief of staff John H. Sununu .

negative: Mitigation of aviation's environmental impact Aviation affects the environment due to aircraft engines emitting noise , particulates , and gases which contribute to climate change and global dimming . Despite emission reductions from automobiles and more fuel-efficient ( and therefore less polluting ) turbofan and turboprop engines , the rapid growth of air travel in recent years contributes to an increase in total pollution attributable to aviation . In the EU , greenhouse gas emissions from aviation increased by 87 % between 1990 and 2006 .   At present aviation accounts for 2.5 % of global CO2 emissions . Due to projected growth in air travel , in the most technologically radical scenarios for having a better than 50 % chance of keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius , in 2050 aviation will make up 15 % of global CO2 emissions . In more conventional scenarios its emissions will exceed the entire global carbon budget before then . This presents governments and the operators of aircraft with a responsibility to reduce the aviation industry 's emissions .

negative: CERINA-Plan CERINA Plan is the abbreviation for `` CO2 Emissions and Renewable Investment Action Plan '' . It is a CO2 reduction concept developed by the German renewable energy institute IWR . The CERINA Plan proposes a technical investment approach linking a country 's CO2 emissions to its investment in renewable energy technology . Therefore , it is an alternative model to approaches like the Kyoto idea of mere cuts in greenhouse gas emissions . The model is meant to be flexible and to adapt to the special national circumstances of each country .

negative: IPCC First Assessment Report The First Assessment Report ( FAR ) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) was completed in 1990 . It served as the basis of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .   The report was issued in three main sections , corresponding to the three Working Groups of scientists that the IPCC had established .   Working Group I : Scientific Assessment of Climate Change , edited by J.T. Houghton , G.J. Jenkins and J.J. Ephraums  Working Group II : Impacts Assessment of Climate Change , edited by W.J. McG . Tegart , G.W. Sheldon and D.C. Griffiths  Working Group III : The IPCC Response Strategies   Each section included a summary for policymakers . This format was followed in subsequent Assessment Reports .   The executive summary of the policymakers ' summary of the WG I report includes :   We are certain of the following : there is a natural greenhouse effect ... ; emissions resulting from human activities are substantially increasing the atmospheric concentrations of the greenhouse gases : CO2 , methane , CFCs and nitrous oxide . These increases will enhance the greenhouse effect , resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth 's surface . The main greenhouse gas , water vapour , will increase in response to global warming and further enhance it .  We calculate with confidence that : ... CO2 has been responsible for over half the enhanced greenhouse effect ; long-lived gases would require immediate reductions in emissions from human activities of over 60 % to stabilise their concentrations at today 's levels ...  Based on current models , we predict : under -LSB- BAU -RSB- increase of global mean temperature during the -LSB- 21st -RSB- century of about 0.3 oC per decade ( with an uncertainty range of 0.2 to 0.5 oC per decade ) ; this is greater than that seen over the past 10,000 years ; under other ... scenarios which assume progressively increasing levels of controls , rates of increase in global mean temperature of about 0.2 oC -LSB- to -RSB- about 0.1 oC per decade .  There are many uncertainties in our predictions particularly with regard to the timing , magnitude and regional patterns of climate change , due to our incomplete understanding of : sources and sinks of GHGs ; clouds ; oceans ; polar ice sheets .  Our judgement is that : global mean surface air temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.6 oC over the last 100 years ... ; The size of this warming is broadly consistent with predictions of climate models , but it is also of the same magnitude as natural climate variability . Thus the observed increase could be largely due to this natural variability ; alternatively this variability and other human factors could have offset a still larger human-induced greenhouse warming . The unequivocal detection of the enhanced greenhouse effect is not likely for a decade or more .  under the IPCC business as usual emissions scenario , an average rate of global mean sea level rise of about 6 cm per decade over the next century ( with an uncertainty range of 3 -- 10 cm per decade ) , mainly due to thermal expansion of the oceans and the melting of some land ice . The predicted rise is about 20 cm ... by 2030 , and 65 cm by the end of the next century .

negative: Eco-costs Eco-costs are a measure to express the amount of environmental burden of a product on the basis of prevention of that burden . They are the costs which should be made to reduce the environmental pollution and materials depletion in our world to a level which is in line with the carrying capacity of our earth .  For example : for each 1000 kg CO2 emission , one should invest $ 135 , - in offshore windmill parks ( and the other CO2 reduction systems at that price or less ) . When this is done consequently , the total CO2 emissions in the world will be reduced by 65 % compared to the emissions in 2008 . As a result , global warming will stabilise . In short : `` the eco-costs of 1000kg CO2 are $ 135 , - '' .  Similar calculations can be made on the environmental burden of acidification , eutrification , summer smog , fine dust , eco-toxicity , and the use of metals , rare earth , fossil fuels , water and land ( nature ) .  As such , the eco-costs are virtual costs , since they are not yet integrated in the real life costs of current production chains ( Life Cycle Costs ) . The eco-costs should be regarded as hidden obligations .  The eco-costs of a product are the sum of all eco-costs of emissions and use of resources during the life cycle `` from cradle to cradle '' . The widely accepted method to make such a calculation is called Life Cycle Assessment ( LCA ) , which is basically a mass and energy balance , defined in the 14040 and ISO 14044 .   The practical use of eco-costs is to compare the sustainability of several product types with the same functionality .  The advantage of eco-costs is that they are expressed in a standardized monetary value which appears to be easily understood ` by instinct ' . Also the calculation is transparent and relatively easy , compared to damage based models which have the disadvantage of extremely complex calculations with subjective weighting of the various aspects contributing to the overall environmental burden .   The system of eco-costs is part of the bigger model of the Ecocosts/Value Ratio , EVR

negative: Sustainable Silicon Valley Sustainable Silicon Valley ( SSV ) is a collaboration of businesses , governments , and non-governmental organizations that are identifying and addressing environmental and resource pressures in Silicon Valley . As its first initiative , SSV engaged Valley organizations , who are the SSV Partners , to work towards a goal of reducing regional carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions 20 % below 1990 levels by 2010 . The SSV approach to reaching this goal is to facilitate strategies to reduce CO2 emissions through increased energy and fuel efficiency and through the use of renewable sources of energy .

negative: Global Carbon Project The Global Carbon Project ( GCP ) was established in 2001 . The organisation seeks to quantify global carbon emissions and their causes .   The main object of the group has been to fully understand the carbon cycle . The project has brought together emissions experts and economists to tackle the problem of rising concentrations of greenhouse gases .   The Global Carbon Project works collaboratively with the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme , the World Climate Programme , the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change and Diversitas , under the Earth System Science Partnership .   In late 2006 researchers from the project claimed that carbon dioxide emissions had dramatically increased to a rate of 3.2 % annually from 2000 . At the time , the chair of the group Dr Mike Raupach stated that `` This is a very worrying sign . It indicates that recent efforts to reduce emissions have had virtually no impact on emissions growth and that effective caps are urgently needed , '' .   A 2010 study conducted by the Project and Nature Geoscience revealed that the world 's oceans absorb 2.3 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide .   On December 5 , 2011 analysis released from the project claimed carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning jumped by the largest amount on record in 2010 to 5.9 percent from a growth rate in the 1990s closer to 1 percent annually . The combustion of coal represented more than half of the growth in emissions , the report found .   They predict greenhouse gas emissions to occur according to the IPCC 's worst-case scenario , as CO2 concentration in the atmosphere reaches 500ppm in the 21st century .

negative: Sustainable automotive air conditioning Sustainable automotive air conditioning is the subject of a debate -- nicknamed the Cool War -- about the next-generation refrigerant in car air conditioning . The Alliance for CO2 Solutions supports the uptake of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) as a refrigerant in passenger cars , and the chemical industry is developing new chemical blends .   The Alliance and its supporters -- scientists , NGOs and business leaders -- urge the car industry to replace high global warming chemical substances with the natural refrigerant carbon dioxide ( CO2 , R744 / R-744 ) in car cooling and heating . This , they argue , would lead to 10 % less car emissions , and knock out 1 % of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide . If CO2 Technology is applied in other sectors , such as commercial and industrial refrigeration , heat pumps for water heating etc. , it may even save up to 3 % of the world 's greenhouse gases .   Opponents of the Alliance claim that CO2 Technology is not cost-efficient and safe , hence seeking to postpone the global industry decision to be taken to develop new chemical blends instead .

negative: Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project The Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project is part of the Gorgon Project , the world 's largest natural gas project . The Gorgon Project , located on Barrow Island in Western Australia , includes a liquefied natural gas ( LNG ) plant , a domestic gas plant , and a Carbon Dioxide Injection Project .   The initial carbon dioxide injections are planned to take place by the end of 2017 . Once launched , the Gorgon Carbon Dioxide Injection Project will be the world 's largest CO2 injection plant , with an ability to store up to 4 million tons of CO2 per year -- approximately 120 million tons over the project 's lifetime , and 40 percent of total Gorgon Project emissions .

negative: Humanistic naturalism Humanistic naturalism is the branch of philosophical naturalism wherein human beings are best able to control and understand the world through use of the scientific method , combined with the social and ethical values of humanism . Concepts of spirituality , intuition , and metaphysics are considered subjectively valuable only , primarily because they are unfalsifiable , and therefore can never progress beyond the realm of personal opinion . A boundary is not drawn between nature and what lies `` beyond '' nature ; everything is regarded as a result of explainable processes within nature , with nothing lying outside of it .   The belief is that all living things are intricate extensions of nature , and therefore deserve some degree of mutual respect from human beings . Naturalists accept the need for adaptation to current change , however it may be , and also that life must feed upon life for survival . However , they also recognize the necessity for a fair exchange of resources between all species . Humanistic naturalists are generally concerned with the ethical aspects of `` worldview naturalism . ''   Industry and technology are sometimes regarded as enemies to naturalism , but this is not always the case . For those who do believe in such threats , the thought is that the majority of human history , societies were largely agricultural and hunter-gatherer and lived in relative harmony and balance with nature . With the dawn of the Industrial Revolution , some humanistic naturalists see this balance as being increasingly threatened . This view has some similarities with anarcho-primitivism and other anti-modernist perspectives .

negative: European Union Emission Trading Scheme The European Union Emissions Trading System ( EU ETS ) , also known as the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme , was the first large greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world , and remains the biggest . It was launched in 2005 to fight Global warming and is a major pillar of EU climate policy . As of 2013 , the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 factories , power stations , and other installations with a net heat excess of 20 MW in 31 countries -- all 28 EU member states plus Iceland , Norway , and Liechtenstein . In 2008 , the installations regulated by the EU ETS were collectively responsible for close to half of the EU 's anthropogenic emissions of CO2 and 40 % of its total greenhouse gas emissions .   Under the ` cap and trade ' principle , a maximum ( cap ) is set on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by all participating installations . ` Allowances ' for emissions are then auctioned off or allocated for free , and can subsequently be traded . Installations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions , ensuring they hand in enough allowances to the authorities to cover their emissions . If emission exceeds what is permitted by its allowances , an installation must purchase allowances from others . Conversely , if an installation has performed well at reducing its emissions , it can sell its leftover credits . This allows the system to find the most cost-effective ways of reducing emissions without significant government intervention .   The scheme has been divided into a number of `` trading periods '' . The first ETS trading period lasted three years , from January 2005 to December 2007 . The second trading period ran from January 2008 until December 2012 , coinciding with the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol . The third trading period began in January 2013 and will span until December 2020 . Compared to 2005 , when the EU ETS was first implemented , the proposed caps for 2020 represents a 21 % reduction of greenhouse gases . This target has been reached 6 years early as emissions in the ETS fell to 1812 mln tonnes in 2014 .   The EU ETS has seen a number of significant changes , with the first trading period described as a ` learning by doing ' phase .  Phase III sees a turn to auctioning a majority of permits rather than allocating freely ; harmonisation of rules for the remaining allocations ; and the inclusion of other greenhouse gases , such as nitrous oxide and perfluorocarbons . In 2012 , the EU ETS was also extended to the airline industry , though this has been paused for one year given the possibility of a global system for these emissions . The price of EU ETS carbon credits has been lower than intended , with a large surplus of allowances , in part because of the impact of the recent economic crisis on demand . In 2012 , the Commission said it would delay the auctioning of some allowances . Currently legislation is under way which would introduce a Market Stability Reserve to the EU ETS that adjusts the annual supply of CO2 permits based on the CO2 permits in circulation .   Overall , since its conception , the EU ETS has been characterized by relatively high levels of policy uncertainty . This uncertainty has been both technical , in terms of its detailed rules and procedures , and political , in terms of its public , industry , and governmental support . As a result , the scheme has resulted in a rather informal and tepid response by regulated organizations .

negative: Coptodon spongotroktis Coptodon spongotroktis is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: Project Vulcan Project Vulcan is a NASA/DOE funded effort under the North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) to quantify North American fossil fuel carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) emissions at space/time scales much finer than has been achieved in the past . The initial purpose of the Vulcan Project was to aid in quantification of the North American carbon budget , to support inverse estimation of carbon sources and sinks , and to support the demands posed by higher resolution CO2 observations . The detail and scope of the Vulcan CO2 inventory has now made it a valuable tool for policymakers , demographers , social scientists and the public at large .   Project Vulcan has achieved U.S. fossil fuel CO2 emissions at < 10 km spatial scales and an hourly time scale , based on datasets such as air quality emissions reporting , census data , highway statistics , energy statistics , and econometric data . Furthermore , Vulcan includes significant process-level detail , dividing the emissions into economic sectors and sub-sectors in addition to 23 fuel types . It has been produced for the year 2002 , and an annual product spanning 1980-2006 will be available by late-2009 .   The first Vulcan inventory ( v1 .0 ) was released to the public in early April 2008 . Version 1.1 was released in February 2009 and Version 1.2 is due out in early August 2009 . In addition to the data release , establishment of the Vulcan website and a press release , a video of various aspects of atmospheric transport was released on Purdue University 's YouTube website and portions of the Vulcan inventory are available on Google Earth . As of 2015 , version 2.2 has been published on a site hosted by Arizona State University .

negative: North American Carbon Program The North American Carbon Program ( NACP ) is one of the major elements of the Strategic Plan for the U.S. Climate Change Science Program .  The central objective of NACP is to measure and understand carbon stocks and sources and sinks of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) , methane ( CH4 ) , and carbon monoxide ( CO ) in North America and adjacent ocean regions .   The specific program goals are as followed :   Develop quantitative scientific knowledge , robust observations , and models to determine the emissions and uptake of CO2 , CH4 , and CO , changes in carbon stocks , and the factors regulating these processes for North America and adjacent ocean basins .   Develop the scientific basis to implement full carbon accounting on regional and continental scales . This is the knowledge base needed to design monitoring programs for natural and managed CO2 sinks and emissions of CH4 .   Support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes , sources , and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4 , and develop forecasts for future trends .   The North American Carbon Program was designed to help with the process of providing data needed to model the synthesis activities .

negative: Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C The Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C (SR15) was published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on 8 October 2018. The report, approved in Incheon, South Korea, includes over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. In December 2015, the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference called for the report. The report was delivered at the United Nations' 48th session of the IPCC to "deliver the authoritative, scientific guide for governments" to deal with climate change.Its key finding is that meeting a 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) target is possible but would require "deep emissions reductions" and "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society." Furthermore, the report finds that "limiting global warming to 1.5 °C compared with 2 °C would reduce challenging impacts on ecosystems, human health and well-being" and that a 2 °C temperature increase would exacerbate extreme weather, rising sea levels and diminishing Arctic sea ice, coral bleaching, and loss of ecosystems, among other impacts. SR15 also has modelling that shows that, for global warming to be limited to 1.5 °C, "Global net human-caused emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) would need to fall by about 45 percent from 2010 levels by 2030, reaching 'net zero' around 2050." The reduction of emissions by 2030 and its associated changes and challenges, including rapid decarbonisation, was a key focus on much of the reporting which was repeated through the world.

negative: Coptodon imbriferna Coptodon imbriferna is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years Unstoppable Global Warming : Every 1,500 Years is a book about climate change , written by Siegfried Fred Singer and Dennis T. Avery , which asserts that natural changes , and not CO2 emissions , are the cause of Global Warming . Published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2006 , the book sold well and was reprinted in an updated edition in 2007 .   The title refers to the hypothesis of 1,500-year climate cycles in the Holocene first postulated by Gerard C. Bond , mainly based on petrologic tracers of drift ice in the North Atlantic .

negative: Coptodon nigrans Coptodon nigrans is a species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Ejagham in western Cameroon . It was only scientifically described in 2010 and has therefore not been rated by the IUCN , but it likely faces the same risks as the critically endangered C. deckerti , which is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , a catfish from the genus Parauchenoglanis that has been introduced to the lake , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Ejagham is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .   It reaches up to 15.3 cm in standard length , and closely resembles the smaller C. deckerti .

negative: Greenhouse gas emissions by the United States According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) , the United States produced 6,587 million metric tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in 2015 . Compared to 2014 levels , U.S. greenhouse gas emissions decreased in 2015 . Compared to levels in 1990 , emissions have increased by about 4 percent . From year to year , emissions can rise and fall due to changes in the economy , the price of fuel , and other factors . The EPA has attributed recent decreases to a reduction in emissions from fossil fuel combustion , which was a result of multiple factors including substitution from coal to natural gas consumption in the electric power sector ; warmer winter conditions that reduced demand for heating fuel in the residential and commercial sectors ; and a slight decrease in electricity demand .   While the Bush administration opted against Kyoto-type policies to reduce emissions , the Obama administration and various state , local , and regional governments have attempted to adopt some Kyoto Protocol goals on a local basis . For example , the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative ( RGGI ) founded in January 2007 is a state-level emissions capping and trading program by nine northeastern U.S. states . In December 2009 President Obama set a target for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas ( GHG ) emissions in the range of 17 % below 2005 levels by 2020 .   The U.S. State Department offered a nation-level perspective in the Fourth US Climate Action Report ( USCAR ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change , including measures to address climate change . The report showed that the country was on track to achieve President Bush 's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions per unit of gross domestic product ) by 18 percent from 2002 to 2012 . Over that same period , actual GHG emissions were projected to increase by 11 percent . The report estimated that in 2006 , U.S. GHG emissions decreased 1.5 percent from 2005 to 7,075.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent . This was an increase of 15.1 percent from the 1990 levels of 6,146.7 million tonnes ( or 0.9 percent annual increase ) , and an increase of 1.4 percent from the 2000 levels of 6,978.4 million tonnes . By 2012 GHG emissions were projected to increase to more than 7,709 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent , which would be 26 percent above 1990 levels .

negative: Coptodon gutturosa Coptodon gutturosa is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: Soil respiration Soil respiration refers to the production of carbon dioxide when soil organisms respire . This includes respiration of plant roots , the rhizosphere , microbes and fauna .   Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO2 . CO2 is acquired from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis . Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy . When plant respiration occurs below-ground in the roots , it adds to soil respiration . Over time , plant structural components are consumed by heterotrophs . This heterotrophic consumption releases CO2 and when this CO2 is released by below-ground organisms , it is considered soil respiration .   The amount of soil respiration that occurs in an ecosystem is controlled by several factors . The temperature , moisture , nutrient content and level of oxygen in the soil can produce extremely disparate rates of respiration . These rates of respiration can be measured in a variety of methods . Other methods can be used to separate the source components , in this case the type of photosynthetic pathway ( C3/C4 ) , of the respired plant structures .   Soil respiration rates can be largely affected by human activity . This is because humans have the ability to and have been changing the various controlling factors of soil respiration for numerous years . Global climate change is composed of numerous changing factors including rising atmospheric CO2 , increasing temperature and shifting precipitation patterns . All of these factors can affect the rate of global soil respiration . Increased nitrogen fertilization by humans also has the potential to effect rates over the entire Earth .   Soil respiration and its rate across ecosystems is extremely important to understand . This is because soil respiration plays a large role in global carbon cycling as well as other nutrient cycles . The respiration of plant structures releases not only CO2 but also other nutrients in those structures , such as nitrogen . Soil respiration is also associated with positive feedbacks with global climate change . Positive feedbacks are when a change in a system produces response in the same direction of the change . Therefore , soil respiration rates can be effected by climate change and then respond by enhancing climate change .

negative: Coptodon flava Coptodon flava is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: EU Allowances EU Allowances are Climate credits ( or Carbon credits ) used in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme ( EU ETS ) . EU Allowances are issued by the EU Member States into Member State Registry accounts . By April 30 of each year , operators of installations covered by the EU ETS must surrender an EU Allowance for each ton of CO2 emitted in the previous year .   Category : Carbon emissions in the European Union

negative: Coptodon bythobates Coptodon bythobates is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: Sustainable tourism Sustainable tourism is the concept of visiting a place as a tourist and trying to make only a positive impact on the environment , society and economy . Tourism can involve primary transportation to the general location , local transportation , accommodations , entertainment , recreation , nourishment and shopping . It can be related to travel for leisure , business and what is called VFR ( visiting friends and relatives ) . There is now broad consensus that tourism development should be sustainable ; however , the question of how to achieve this remains an object of debate .   Without travel there is no tourism , so the concept of sustainable tourism is tightly linked to a concept of sustainable mobility . Two relevant considerations are tourism 's reliance on fossil fuels and tourism 's effect on climate change . 72 percent of tourism 's CO2 emissions come from transportation , 24 percent from accommodations , and 4 percent from local activities . Aviation accounts for 55 % of those transportation CO2 emissions ( or 40 % of tourism 's total ) . However , when considering the impact of all greenhouse gas emissions from tourism and that aviation emissions are made at high altitude where their effect on climate is amplified , aviation alone accounts for 75 % of tourism 's climate impact .   The International Air Transport Association ( IATA ) considers an annual increase in aviation fuel efficiency of 2 percent per year through 2050 to be realistic . However , both Airbus and Boeing expect the passenger-kilometers of air transport to increase by about 5 percent yearly through at least 2020 , overwhelming any efficiency gains . By 2050 , with other economic sectors having greatly reduced their CO2 emissions , tourism is likely to be generating 40 percent of global carbon emissions . The main cause is an increase in the average distance travelled by tourists , which for many years has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of trips taken . `` Sustainable transportation is now established as the critical issue confronting a global tourism industry that is palpably unsustainable , and aviation lies at the heart of this issue ( Gossling et al. , 2010 ) . ''

negative: German response to Kyoto Protocol Germany is Europe 's largest and the world 's 6th greatest single emitter of CO2 . In July 2007 , Germany had the largest European population , with 82.4 million people . Germany imports most of its materials and energy sources , and in 2004 imported 2.135 million barrels of oil and 85.02 billion m ³ ( 2003 ) of natural gas a day . In 2004 , Germany emitted 886 million metric tonnes of CO2 . In 2004 , there were approximately 45 million registered cars in Germany .   Between March 1998 and March 1999 , 84 countries including Germany signed the Kyoto Protocol . In March 2002 , the Bundestag unanimously ratified Kyoto . In May 2002 , the European Union submitted the articles of ratification for all 15 of its then member states .   As an Annex II nation , Germany 's commitment to the UNFCCC with respect to Kyoto was to reduce emissions as well as to provide an economic crutch to developing nations via Clean Development Mechanisms .   In November 2006 , Germany 's planned annual quota was 482 million metric tonnes of CO2 . German Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduced by 17.2 % from 1990 to 2004 , according to UNFCCC . Germany actively promotes government carbon funds and supports multilateral carbon funds that are intent on purchasing Carbon Credits from non-Annex I parties . Government organizations work closely with major utility , energy , oil and gas , and chemicals conglomerates to try to acquire as many Greenhouse Gas Certificates as cheaply as possible .   Since signing and ratifying the protocol , Germany has committed to reducing its emissions to 21 % below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 . In November 2008 , a study found that Germany had already reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 22.4 % , which means it already reached its Kyoto Emissions Commitments .

negative: Carbon price Carbon pricing -- the method favored by many economists for reducing global-warming emissions -- charges those who emit carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) for their emissions . That charge , called a carbon price , is the amount that must be paid for the right to emit one tonne of CO2 into the atmosphere . Carbon pricing usually takes the form either of a carbon tax or a requirement to purchase permits to emit , generally known as cap-and-trade , but also called `` allowances '' .   Carbon pricing solves the economic problem that , a known greenhouse gas , is what economics calls a negative externality -- a detrimental product that is not priced ( charged for ) by any market . As a consequence of not being priced , there is no market mechanism responsive to the costs of CO2 emitted . The standard economic solution to problems of this type , first proposed by Arthur Pigou in 1920 , is for the product - in this case , CO2 emissions - to be charged at a price equal to the monetary value of the damage caused by the emissions . This should result in the economically optimal ( efficient ) amount of CO2 emissions . Many practical concerns mar the theoretical simplicity of this picture : for example , the exact monetary damage caused by a tonne of CO2 is uncertain .   The economics of carbon pricing is much the same for taxes and cap-and-trade . Both prices are efficient ; they have the same social cost and the same effect on profits if permits are auctioned . However , some economists argue that caps prevent non-price policies , such as renewable energy subsidies , from reducing carbon emissions , while carbon taxes do not . Others argue that an enforced cap is the only way to guarantee that carbon emissions will actually be reduced ; a carbon tax will not prevent those who can afford to do so from continuing to generate emissions .   The choice of pricing approach , a tax or cap-and-trade , has been controversial . A carbon tax is generally favored on economic grounds for its simplicity and stability , while cap-and-trade is often favored on political grounds . Recently ( 2013 − 14 ) economic opinion has been shifting more heavily toward taxes as national policy measures , and toward a neutral carbon-price-commitment position for the purpose of international climate negotiations .

negative: Laguna Caldera Laguna Caldera is located southeast of Manila . It has a summit elevation of 743m or 2,438 feet . The caldera , whose lake surface is only 1m above sea level , may have formed at least two major eruptions of about 1 million and 27,000-29 ,000 years ago .

negative: Coptodon snyderae Coptodon snyderae is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .

negative: Coptodon thysi Coptodon thysi is a critically endangered species of fish in the cichlid family . It is endemic to Lake Bermin in Cameroon . It is threatened by pollution and sedimentation from human activities , and potentially also by large emissions of carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) from the lake 's bottom ( compare Lake Nyos ) , although Bermin is too shallow to contain very high amounts of this gas .


query: The Conservatives' recent budget made no mention of climate change.

positive: Stephen Harper Stephen Joseph Harper ( born April 30 , 1959 ) is a Canadian entrepreneur and retired politician who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada , from February 6 , 2006 to November 4 , 2015 . He was the first prime minister to come from the modern Conservative Party of Canada , which was formed by a merger of the Progressive Conservative Party and the Canadian Alliance .   Harper was member of parliament for the riding of Calgary Heritage in Alberta from 2002 to 2016 ( previously known as Calgary Southwest from 2002 to 2015 ) . Earlier , from 1993 to 1997 , he was the MP for Calgary West , representing the Reform Party of Canada . He was one of the founding members of the Reform Party , but did not seek re-election in the 1997 federal election . Harper instead joined and later led the National Citizens Coalition , a conservative lobbyist group . In 2002 , he succeeded Stockwell Day as leader of the Canadian Alliance , the successor to the Reform Party and returned to parliament as Leader of the Opposition . In 2003 , he reached an agreement with Progressive Conservative leader Peter MacKay for the merger of their two parties to form the Conservative Party of Canada . He was elected as the party 's first leader , in March 2004 . Harper stepped down as MP on August 26 , 2016 .   The 2006 federal election resulted in a minority government led by the Conservative Party with Harper becoming the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada . By proportion of seats , this was Canada 's smallest minority government since Confederation . Despite this , it was the longest-serving minority government overall . In the 2008 federal election , the Conservative Party won a stronger minority , showing a small increase in the percentage of the popular vote and increased representation in the Canadian House of Commons , with 143 of 308 seats . The 40th Canadian Parliament was dissolved in March , 2011 , after a no-confidence vote that deemed the Cabinet to be in contempt of parliament . In the federal election that followed , the Conservatives won a majority government , the first since the 2000 federal election ; the party won 166 seats , an increase of 23 seats from the October 2008 election .   Though Harper won his seat of Calgary-Heritage in the October 19 , 2015 , federal election , the Conservative Party was defeated by the Liberal Party of Canada , led by Justin Trudeau , who was sworn-in as Harper 's successor on November 4 , 2015 . Harper resigned as party leader on October 19 , 2015 , and the Conservative Party caucus chose an interim leader , Rona Ambrose , on November 5 , 2015 , to serve until a leadership election . Harper moved back to Calgary , Alberta , and commuted to Ottawa as an opposition backbench member of parliament .

positive: Climate Change Act 2008 The Climate Change Act 2008 ( c 27 ) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The Act makes it the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that the net UK carbon account for all six Kyoto greenhouse gases for the year 2050 is at least 80 % lower than the 1990 baseline , toward avoiding dangerous climate change . The Act aims to enable the United Kingdom to become a low-carbon economy and gives ministers powers to introduce the measures necessary to achieve a range of greenhouse gas reduction targets . An independent Committee on Climate Change has been created under the Act to provide advice to UK Government on these targets and related policies . In the act Secretary of State refers to the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change .

positive: Conservative Party (UK) The Conservative Party , officially the Conservative and Unionist Party , is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom . It is currently the governing party , having won a majority of seats in the House of Commons at the 2015 general election . The party 's leader , Theresa May , is currently serving as Prime Minister . It is the largest party in local government with 9,237 councillors . The Conservative Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United Kingdom , the other being its modern rival , the Labour Party . The Conservative Party 's platform involves support for free market capitalism , free enterprise , fiscal conservatism , a strong national defence , deregulation , and restrictions on trade unions .   The Conservative Party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party -- giving rise to the Conservatives ' colloquial name of Tories -- and was one of two dominant political parties in the nineteenth century , along with the Liberal Party . During the 1890s , it formed a coalition government with the Liberal Unionist Party , a break-away faction of the Liberal Party . In 1912 , the two parties merged to form the current Conservative and Unionist Party . In the 1920s , the Liberal vote greatly diminished and the Labour Party became the Conservatives ' main rivals . Conservative Prime Ministers led governments for 57 years of the twentieth century , including Winston Churchill ( 1940 -- 45 , 1951 -- 55 ) and Margaret Thatcher ( 1979 -- 90 ) . Thatcher 's tenure led to wide-ranging economic liberalisation . The Conservative Party 's domination of British politics throughout the twentieth century has led to them being referred to as one of the most successful political parties in the Western world .   The Conservatives are the joint-second largest British party in the European Parliament , with twenty MEPs , and sit with the European Conservatives and Reformists ( ECR ) parliamentary group . The party is a member of the Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe ( ACRE ) Europarty and the International Democrat Union ( IDU ) .   The party is the second-largest in the Scottish Parliament and the second-largest in the Welsh Assembly . The Conservatives were formerly allied to the Ulster Unionist Party ( UUP ) in Northern Ireland but there is now a separate Northern Ireland Conservative party similar to the Welsh and Scottish Conservative parties . The party is also organised in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar .

negative: Climate variability Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth's energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth's energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling. The energy moving through Earth's climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region's climate. Such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system's components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism. Climate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.

negative: Effects of climate change on wine production Climate change in recent times has become a major issue and talking point globally because of its effects on the environment and the repercussions this could be having or possibly have . The effects of climate change on Viniculture ( wine production ) are described in this article .

negative: Attribution of recent climate change Attribution of recent climate change is the effort to scientifically ascertain mechanisms responsible for recent climate changes on Earth , commonly known as ` global warming ' . The effort has focused on changes observed during the period of instrumental temperature record , when records are most reliable ; particularly in the last 50 years , when human activity has grown fastest and observations of the troposphere have become available . The dominant mechanisms are anthropogenic , i.e. , the result of human activity . They are :  increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases  global changes to land surface , such as deforestation  increasing atmospheric concentrations of aerosols .   There are also natural mechanisms for variation including climate oscillations , changes in solar activity , and volcanic activity .   According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) , it is `` extremely likely '' that human influence was the dominant cause of global warming between 1951 and 2010 . The IPCC defines `` extremely likely '' as indicating a probability of 95 to 100 % , based on an expert assessment of all the available evidence .   Multiple lines of evidence support attribution of recent climate change to human activities :  A basic physical understanding of the climate system : greenhouse gas concentrations have increased and their warming properties are well-established .  Historical estimates of past climate changes suggest that the recent changes in global surface temperature are unusual .  Computer-based climate models are unable to replicate the observed warming unless human greenhouse gas emissions are included .  Natural forces alone ( such as solar and volcanic activity ) can not explain the observed warming .   The IPCC 's attribution of recent global warming to human activities is a view shared by the scientific community , and is also supported by 196 other scientific organizations worldwide ( see also : scientific opinion on climate change ) .

negative: Lee Hannah Lee Hannah is a conservation ecologist and a Senior Researcher in Climate Change Biology at Conservation International . Hannah is one of many authors who published an article predicting that between 15 % and 37 % of species are at risk of extinction due to climate change caused by human greenhouse gas emissions .

negative: Climate change (general concept) Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. In the time since the industrial revolution the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities that are causing global warming and climate change.The climate system receives nearly all of its energy from the sun. The climate system also radiates energy to outer space. The balance of incoming and outgoing energy, and the passage of the energy through the climate system, determines Earth\'s energy budget. When the incoming energy is greater than the outgoing energy, earth\'s energy budget is positive and the climate system is warming. If more energy goes out, the energy budget is negative and earth experiences cooling.\nThe energy moving through Earth\'s climate system finds expression in weather, varying on geographic scales and time. Long-term averages and variability of weather in a region constitute the region\'s climate. Such changes can be the result of "internal variability", when natural processes inherent to the various parts of the climate system alter the distribution of energy. Examples include variability in ocean basins such as the Pacific decadal oscillation and Atlantic multidecadal oscillation. Climate variability can also result from external forcing, when events outside of the climate system\'s components nonetheless produce changes within the system. Examples include changes in solar output and volcanism.\nClimate variability has consequences for sea level changes, plant life, and mass extinctions; it also affects human societies.

negative: Climate Change Performance Index The Climate Change Performance Index ( CCPI ) is an annual publication by Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe . It evaluates the climate protection performance of 58 countries , responsible for over 90 % of global energy-related emissions . CCPI 2013 publication covers emissions from the fossil fuels , except emissions from the shipping industry . Following CCPI 2013 publication may include emissions from deforestation , agriculture and waste . 50 % of the evaluation is based on emissions trend , 30 % on emissions level and 20 % on national and international climate policy assessments made by more than 200 experts . The most recent results ( published December 2014 ) illustrate that efforts are still insufficient to prevent dangerous climate change . Thus , no country received rankings one to three in the results for 2015 although Denmark which topped the list was praised for its efforts .

negative: Nordic Development Fund The Nordic Development Fund is the joint multilateral development finance institution of Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Norway and Sweden . It was established in 1989 and adheres to the development assistance policies of the Nordic countries and has financed 190 development assistance credits valued at EUR 1 billion . The NDF provides grants to climate change related investments under its new mandate , established in 2009 . NDF offices are located in Helsinki , Finland .   The objective of the Nordic Development Fund 's ( NDF ) operations is to facilitate climate change investments in low-income countries . NDF grants are made in cooperation with bilateral and multilateral development institutions . NDF 's operations mirror the Nordic countries ' priorities in the areas of climate change and poverty reduction . The operations are financed from the development cooperation budgets of the five Nordic countries .

negative: Michael Schlesinger Dr. Michael Earl Schlesinger ( born February 23 , 1943 ) is a Professor of Atmospheric Sciences and director of the Climate Research Group at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign . He received his Ph.D. ( meteorology ) in 1976 from the University of California , Los Angeles .   Michael Schlesinger is an expert in the modeling , simulation and analysis of climate and climate change , with interests in simulating and understanding the climates of the geologic past and possible future climates resulting from increased concentrations of greenhouse gases and human-made aerosols .   He has been instrumental in developing a range of simple and complex climate models , which have been used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Energy Modeling Forum . His research currently focuses on : ( 1 ) simulating and understanding the effects on climate of a human-induced melting of the Greenland ice sheet ; ( 2 ) simulating and understanding the coupled climate-chemistry system , including the influences of the Sun - both irradiance and energetic electron precipitation - and volcanoes ; ( 3 ) understanding and reducing the uncertainty in the estimation of climate sensitivity and climate feedbacks ; and ( 4 ) performing integrative assessment of climate change , including further development of the robust adaptive decision strategy for mitigating and adapting to human-induced climate change .   He is known for his work on oscillations in the global climate system , on estimating the climate sensitivity , and on seasonal climate change .   He has edited four books , most recently Human-induced climate change : An interdisciplinary assessment . He regularly appears in the media .

negative: Aaranyak Aaranyak is a leading wildlife NGO based in Guwahati . It is a Scientific , Industrial Research and frontline environmental organization of India . It works all over the eastern Himalayan region on nature conservation , natural resources management , climate change , disaster management and livelihood enhancement of marginalized communities through research , education and advocacy .   The group says its mission is to foster conservation of biodiversity in Northeast India through research , environmental education , capacity building and advocacy for legal and policy reform to usher a new era of ecological security .  Recently , UN framework convention on climate change announced Aaranyak in partnership with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development ( ICIMOD ) as winner of its UN Lighthouse Activity Award 2014 for the successful implementation of the community-based flood early warning system in the Lakhimpur and Dhemaji Districts of Assam .

negative: Media coverage of global warming Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it mediates the scientific opinion on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is mainly caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases. Almost all scientific bodies of national or international standing agree with this view, although a few organisations hold non-committal positions. Climate change communication research frequently studies the effectiveness of that media.  Some researchers and journalists believe that media coverage of political issues is adequate and fair, while a few feel that it is biased. However, most studies on media coverage of the topic are neither recent nor concerned with coverage of environmental issues. Moreover, they are only rarely concerned specifically with the question of bias.Despite recent trends in increased coverage on climate change, media coverage is not constant, and researchers wonder if the current increase in attention will be sustained.

negative: Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean The Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean ( SHEBA ) study was a National Science Foundation-funded research project designed to quantify the heat transfer processes that occur between the ocean and the atmosphere over the course of a year in the Arctic Ocean , where the sun is above the horizon from spring through summer and below the horizon the rest of the time . The study was designed to provide data for use in global climate models , which scientists use to study global climate change .

negative: Wendy Foden Wendy Foden is a conservation biologist , best known for her work on climate change impacts on biodiversity .

negative: Michael P. Nash Michael P. `` Mike '' Nash is an American film director , screenwriter and producer . He has directed the films Climate Refugees , Fuel and Nebraska . His films have won several domestic and international awards . During the Copenhagen COP15 conference Nash , considered an expert on environmental migration , helped the UN frame the issue of environmental migrants . At the 2010 Sundance Film Festival , where his film Climate Refugees was shown , Robert Redford stated that '' -LSB- Climate Refugees -RSB- can be an agent for social change . '' Climate Refugees was also shown at the L.A. Film Festival and was screened by the United Nations . Recently he was award Senator Barbara Boxer 's Conservation Champion Award and the Neiman Marcus Environmental Filmmakers Vision Award at the Dallas International Film Festival .

negative: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change The Ministry of Environment , Forest and Climate Change ( MoEFCC ) is an Indian government ministry . The ministry portfolio is currently held by Dr. Harsh Vardhan , Union Minister of Environment , Forest and Climate Change .   The ministry is responsible for planning , promoting , coordinating , and overseeing the implementation of environmental and forestry programmes in the country . The main activities undertaken by the ministry include conservation and survey of the flora of India and fauna of India , forests and other wilderness areas ; prevention and control of pollution ; afforestation , and land degradation mitigation . It is responsible for the administration of the national parks of India .   One of the three All India Services , the Indian Forest Service ( IFoS ) is under the administration and supervision of the Ministry of Environment , Forest and Climate Change .

negative: Solar activity and climate Solar irradiance variation has been a main driver of climate change over geologic time , but its role in the recent warming has been found to be insignificant .

negative: World Mayors Council on Climate Change The World Mayors Council on Climate Change ( WMCCC ) is an alliance of mayors who have made a commitment to the protection of climate change .  Since 2012 , the Chair is Park Won-soon , Mayor of Seoul , South Korea . The Vice-Chair is Juergen Nimptsch , Mayor of Bonn , Germany .

negative: 2006 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2006 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between November 6 and 17 , 2006 in Nairobi , Kenya . The conference included the 12th Conference of the Parties ( COP12 ) and the 2nd Meeting of the Parties ( MOP2 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) . At the meeting , BBC reporter Richard Black coined the phrase `` climate tourists '' to describe some delegates who attended `` to see Africa , take snaps of the wildlife , the poor , dying African children and women '' . Black also noted that due to delegates concerns over economic costs and possible losses of competitiveness , the majority of the discussions avoided any mention of reducing emissions . Black concluded that was a disconnect between the political process and the scientific imperative . Despite such criticism , certain strides were made at COP12 , including in the areas of support for developing countries and clean development mechanism . The parties adopted a five-year plan of work to support climate change adaptation by developing countries , and agreed on the procedures and modalities for the Adaptation Fund . They also agreed to improve the projects for clean development mechanism .

negative: 2016 Summer Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on the evening of Friday 5 August 2016 in the Maracanã Stadium , Rio de Janeiro , starting at 20:00 BRT ( 23:00 UTC ) . As mandated by the Olympic Charter , the proceedings combined the formal ceremonial opening of this international sporting event ( including welcoming speeches , hoisting of the flags and the parade of athletes , as well as a new feature -- the presentation of the International Olympic Committee 's Olympic Laurel distinction ) with an artistic spectacle to showcase the host nation 's culture and history .   Directed by Fernando Meirelles , Daniela Thomas and Andrucha Waddington , the ceremony featured presentations of the history and culture of Brazil , including its landscape and forests , the history of the Portuguese people , music and samba , and the favelas among other aspects . Portions of the ceremony were also dedicated to the topics of environmental conservation and climate change . The Games were officially opened by Acting President of Brazil Michel Temer .   Despite having a significantly lower budget than those of other recent Olympics , the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympics was praised by the international media for its vivid , diverse performances , emphasis on multiculturalism , and its appeal to the issue of climate change .

negative: Climate change in South Korea In recent decades most countries have been experiencing huge industrial progress . Urban and industrial areas in South Korea also had fast development from 1960s to 1980s . Industrialization and the increase in population have produced various pollutants and greenhouse gases , which are anthropogenic factors for climate change . South Korea is experiencing changes in climate parameters , including annual temperature , rainfall amounts , and precipitation . The most distinct climate change predicted for South Korea is an increase in the range of temperature fluctuation throughout the four seasons . The number of record minimum temperature days has decreased rapidly , and maximum precipitation during the summer has increased . Ongoing global climate change has produced local climate changes and extreme weather that affects : social , economy , industry , culture , and many other sectors . The increased possibility for new types of strong weather damage evokes the seriousness and the urgency of climate change . To quickly adapt to climate change , the South Korean government began an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions , and is one step closer to having a low-carbon based socio-economic nation .

negative: Anna Rose Anna Rose ( born 14 April 1983 ) is an Australian author , activist and environmentalist . She co-founded the Australian Youth Climate Coalition ( AYCC ) in late 2006 and was , until recently , the Chair of the AYCC board . In 2012 she co-starred in an ABC documentary , I Can Change Your Mind on Climate Change and released her first full-length book , Madlands : A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic . Rose is the convenor of the Vice-Chancellor 's Leadership & Influence course at the Australian National University .

negative: Climate Change TV Climate-ChangeTV was the world 's first web channel specific to climate change videos . It contains interviews from heads of state , government officials and negotiators , NGO 's , Civil Society and business professionals with a range of views on the climate change negotiations .   It is hosted by Responding to Climate Change , an NGO and Official Observer to the United Nations Framework on the Convention on Climate Change   RTCC provides a daily news and analysis service - following latest developments in climate policy , research and other aspects of the climate debate . In February this year they submitted a series of proposals to the UNFCCC on raising the ambition of the Durban Platform - which had been agreed at COP17 .   The Studio is run for the UNFCCC at the annual COP . The interviews are hosted on RTCC and the UNFCCC 's studio portal .   It provides for one-on-one video interviews with a wide array of stakeholders from civil society , intergovernmental organizations and party delegates . The studio provides a platform for discussing the effects of climate change , causes of global warming and possible solutions . It continues at COP17/CMP 7 after successfully running at COP15/CMP 5 in Copenhagen , and COP16/CMP 6 in Cancun .   At the most recent COP , held in December 2011 , the Climate Change TV Studio was visited by UNFCCC Chief Executive Christiana Figueres , lead Netherlands negotiator Maas Goote , and UK Minister for energy and climate change Greg Barker , along with members of Oxfam and 350 . org .

negative: 2004 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2004 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between December 6 and December 17 , 2004 in Buenos Aires , Argentina . The conference included the 10th Conference of the Parties ( COP10 ) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( UNFCCC ) .   The parties discussed the progress made since the first United Nations Climate Change Conference ten years ago and its future challenges , with special emphasis on climate change mitigation and adaptation . To promote developing countries better adapt to climate change , the Buenos Aires Plan of Action was adopted . The parties also began discussing the post-Kyoto mechanism , on how to allocate emission reduction obligation following 2012 , when the first commitment period ends .

negative: Climate change denial Climate change denial , or global warming denial , is part of the global warming controversy . It involves denial , dismissal , unwarranted doubt or contrarian views which strongly depart from the scientific opinion on climate change , including the extent to which it is caused by humans , its impacts on nature and human society , or the potential of adaptation to global warming by human actions . Some deniers do endorse the term , but others often prefer the term climate change skepticism , although this is a misnomer for those who deny anthropogenic global warming . In effect , the two terms form a continuous , overlapping range of views , and generally have the same characteristics : both reject , to a greater or lesser extent , mainstream scientific opinion on climate change . Climate change denial can also be implicit , when individuals or social groups accept the science but fail to come to terms with it or to translate their acceptance into action . Several social science studies have analyzed these positions as forms of denialism .   Campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science has been described as a `` denial machine '' of industrial , political and ideological interests , supported by conservative media and skeptical bloggers in manufacturing uncertainty about global warming . In the public debate , phrases such as climate skepticism have frequently been used with the same meaning as climate denialism . The labels are contested : those actively challenging climate science commonly describe themselves as `` skeptics '' , but many do not comply with common standards of scientific skepticism and , regardless of evidence , persistently deny the validity of human caused global warming .   Although scientific opinion on climate change is that human activity is extremely likely to be the primary driver of climate change , the politics of global warming have been affected by climate change denial , hindering efforts to prevent climate change and adapt to the warming climate . Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none .   Of the world 's countries , the climate change denial industry is most powerful in the United States . Since January 2015 , the United States Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works has been chaired by oil lobbyist and climate change denier Jim Inhofe . Inhofe is notorious for having called climate change `` the greatest hoax ever perpetrated against the American people '' and for having claimed to have debunked the alleged hoax in February 2015 when he brought a snowball with him in the Senate chamber and tossed it across the floor . Organised campaigning to undermine public trust in climate science is associated with conservative economic policies and backed by industrial interests opposed to the regulation of emissions . Climate change denial has been associated with the fossil fuels lobby , the Koch brothers , industry advocates and libertarian think tanks , often in the United States . More than 90 % of papers sceptical on climate change originate from right-wing think tanks .  The total annual income of these climate change counter-movement-organizations is roughly $ 900 million . Between 2002 and 2010 , nearly $ 120 million ( # 77 million ) was anonymously donated via the Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund to more than 100 organisations seeking to undermine the public perception of the science on climate change . In 2013 the Center for Media and Democracy reported that the State Policy Network ( SPN ) , an umbrella group of 64 U.S. think tanks , had been lobbying on behalf of major corporations and conservative donors to oppose climate change regulation .   Since the late 1970s , oil companies have published research broadly in line with the standard views on global warming . Despite this , oil companies organized a climate change denial campaign to disseminate public disinformation for several decades , a strategy that has been compared to the organized denial of the hazards of tobacco smoking by tobacco companies .

negative: Energy Technologies Institute The Energy Technologies Institute ( ETI ) is an energy research , development and demonstration body established in the United Kingdom in 2007 . The government set up the ETI following an announcement in the 2006 budget speech . The purpose of the ETI is to `` accelerate the development , demonstration and eventual commercial deployment of a focused portfolio of energy technologies , which will increase energy efficiency , reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help achieve energy and climate change goals '' . The institute works with a range of academic and commercial bodies .   Deployment of the technologies involved , which are expected to contribute to the reduction of the UK 's carbon emissions , is expected to begin around 2018 .   Commentators generally welcomed the new body as likely to make a positive contribution in the efforts to minimise climate change . At the same time , they pointed to the slow pace of government action in promoting energy conservation and implementing existing low-carbon technologies , compared to progress in a number of other European countries .

negative: Science policy of the United States The science policy of the United States is the responsibility of many organizations throughout the federal government . Much of the large-scale policy is made through the legislative budget process of enacting the yearly federal budget , although there are other legislative issues that directly involve science , such as energy policy , climate change , and stem cell research . Further decisions are made by the various federal agencies which spend the funds allocated by Congress , either on in-house research or by granting funds to outside organizations and researchers .   The USA devoted 2.81 % of GDP to research and development ( R&D ) in 2012 . The private sector contributed two-thirds of the total . The Obama administration has fixed a target of a 3 % ratio by the end of his presidency in 2016 .

negative: Landscape-scale conservation Landscape-scale conservation is a concept that has arisen in response to both the challenges of climate change and a perceived excessive focus on site based conservation . It aims to take a holistic approach , looking not just at biodiversity issues , but also issues such as local economies and agriculture , eco-tourism , geodiversity and the health and social benefits of the environment .

negative: Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change The Muslim Seven Year Action Plan on Climate Change is a climate action plan for the global Islamic community , meant to run from 2010 to 2017 . It was developed by the British Earth Mates Dialogue Center and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs . It is one of several multi-year climate action plans developed by major religious communities , developed in coordination with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation and the United Nations Development Programme .   According to the Alliance of Religions and Conservation , the plan proposes `` investigating every level of Muslim activity from daily life to annual pilgrimages , from holy cities to the future training of Imams , '' `` developing the major Muslim cities as green city models for other Islamic urban areas , '' and `` developing an Islamic label for environmentally friendly goods and services . '' Proposals were to be managed by a group called the Muslim Association for Climate Change Action ( MACCA , an acronym meant to sound like `` Mecca '' ) .

negative: Size of Wales Size of Wales is a charitable project with the aim to conserve an area of tropical rainforest the size of Wales . The project currently supports fourteen forest projects worldwide linking them to supporters in Wales . The charity focuses upon furthering the promotion of rainforest conservation as a national response to the problem of climate change .

negative: Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley Christopher Walter Monckton , 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley ( born 14 February 1952 ) is a British public speaker and hereditary peer . He is known for his work as a journalist , Conservative political advisor , UKIP political candidate , and for his invention of the mathematical puzzle Eternity .   Early on in his public speaking career topics centred on his mathematical puzzle and conservative politics . In recent years his public speaking has garnered attention due to his advocacy of climate change denial and his views on the European Union and social policy .

negative: 2007 Nobel Peace Prize The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was shared , in two equal parts , between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and Al Gore `` for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change , and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change '' .

negative: Nick Dulvy Nicholas Kevin Dulvy is the Co-Chair of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature ( IUCN ) Shark Specialist Group and Canada Research Chair tier II in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at Simon Fraser University . He has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on life histories , extinction risk , the ecosystem impacts of fishing and the ecological and socioeconomic impacts of climate change .   Dulvy was educated at The Royal School , Armagh . He received his Bachelor of Science in Zoology from University of Birmingham in 1992 , and his Doctor of Philosophy from the University of East Anglia in 1998 . He spent several years working for the UK Government Fisheries Agency before taking a position at Simon Fraser University in 2008 . His contributions to marine ecology include providing evidence for fisheries-induced trophic cascades at the island scale on coral reefs and the discovery that fishes are moving to deeper habitats in response to climate change . Dulvy and co-authors were the first to document marine population and species extinctions .   Dulvy 's work is notable for its influence on biodiversity conservation , food security , and poverty alleviation . For this work he was the 2008 recipient of the Zoological Society of London 's Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation which is awarded for `` contributions of fundamental science and its application to the conservation in marine and/or freshwater ecosystems '' . The award citation was for `` research on the effects of climate change on fisheries and coastal communities , as well as threat and extinction risks in the context of improving fisheries management '' . In 2010 , he was made a Conservation Fellow of the Zoological Society of London , an award honouring individuals who have made exceptional contributions to conservation .   In 2014 Dulvy was the primary author of the first global analysis of the vulnerability of chondrichthyans : `` Extinction risk and conservation of the world 's sharks and rays '' , a collaborative effort involving 302 experts from 64 countries . As the most endangered species of sharks and rays are sawfishes , Dulvy and co-authors then developed the first global sawfish conservation strategy .

negative: European Commissioner for Climate Action The Commissioner for Climate Action is a new post in the European Commission . It was created in 2010 , being split from the environmental portfolio to focus on fighting climate change . The current Commissioner is Miguel Arias Cañete .   The European Union has made a number of moves in regard to climate change . Most notably it signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 , set up its Emission Trading Scheme in 2005 and is currently agreeing to unilaterally cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20 % by 2020 .