The Earth is about 4,6 billion years old and its climate has changed a great deal throughout history. According to current understanding, the Earth’s climate has had many warm periods and at least six millions-of-years-long cold periods when most of the planet was covered in ice. During the cold periods large ice sheets were formed close to either the South or North Pole or both. The Earth is currently in the most recent glacial period, which started 30 million years ago.

The Earth has had twelve major extinction events, out of which six have been identified as mass extinctions. There is still debate about the causes of mass extinctions that took place hundreds of millions of years ago, but in general, large extinctions may result when the climate changes rapidly. Significant global warming of the seas and climate have accelerated at least the first, second, fourth and ongoing sixth mass extinction.

Although the human era is very short from the perspective of climate history, climate has had a great influence on human life and civilization. Favourable climate enabled humans to develop civilizations, whereas challenging climate has been at least partly responsible for the rise and fall of many ancient civilizations. There are a variety of reasons why civilizations have collapsed but, for example, the fall of the Mayans, the old kingdom of Egypt and other high cultures have been linked to extended droughts.

Another good example of climate change’s impact on civilizations is that of the Vikings in Greenland. They settled on the island during the medieval warm period, but during the so-called little ice age of the 13th century their total numbers decreased significantly. It was previously believed that a cold climate wiped out their colonies. However, current knowledge suggests the Vikings adapted to the colder climate although it posed many challenges. Gradually, those challenges caused them to leave the island and search for a more hospitable climate elsewhere. In any case, these are examples of historical events where shifts in climate affected human’s ability to survive in particular areas.

These types of events are expected to become increasingly common due to ongoing climate change and it is likely that climate migration will cause conflicts between nations. Major climate changes in densely populated areas may force people to leave their home, and settling in new regions might prove challenging, as the Syrian refugee crisis has indicated.

WhatsAllThisThen

Current climate change is result of human expansion of the greenhouse effect, and scientists have understood its mechanisms for almost two hundred years. French physicist Joseph Fourier used the word for the first time in 1824. He suggested that the Earth’s atmosphere might form a barrier against solar radiation, which reflects the heat energy away into space and therefore acts to raise the planet’s temperature. A few decades later in 1899, Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius suggested that the burning of coal was accelerating natural climate change. However, he thought this prospect might be beneficial for humankind.

In the 1960’s, climate change became a more serious scientific interest due to the fact that there were more signs of a changing climate and scientists started to comprehend its urgent nature. The United Nations’ Environment Programme UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization WMO held the first climate conference in Geneva in 1979, and in 1988 WMO and UNEP founded the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) to support decision making and provide the world with an objective scientific view of the issue. Since then, the IPCC has published a comprehensive assessment report reviewing the latest climate science every six years.

Scientific information of the impacts of climate change and the contribution of humans to it has become ever more precise:

• IPCC’s First Assessment Report on climate change was published in 1990. It postulates that temperature has risen globally by 0,3 – 0,6 degrees over the last century.
• The Second Assessment Report in 1995 stated unequivocally for the first time that human activities alter the Earth’s climate.
• According to the Third Report (2001) there is “new and stronger evidence” that most of the recent global warming is attributable to human activities.
• The Fourth Report (2007) states: “it is very likely (over 90%) that an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations are the cause behind climate change.”
• The Fifth Report (2013) suggests: “it is extremely likely (95%) that human influence has been the dominant cause of global warming.”

In addition to the IPCC reports, there is a great deal of other scientific information that has caused debate. In 2006, comprehensive reports on the economics of climate change by British economist Nicholas Stern provoked discussion when he warned about the high cost of climate change if global mitigation does not urgently and rapidly happen.

UN ISDR

The United Nations plays a central and active role in organizing climate change action. The first United Nation’s conference on the human environment was held in Stockholm in 1972; however climate change was not yet on the agenda, although it was already a scientific interest.

The main framework convention on climate change was agreed on at the United Nations Conference on climate change held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The Rio summit was a starting point for international climate change negotiations and the treaty signed there entered into force in 1994. More than 190 countries have ratified it, and its objective is to reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to harmless levels.

The Rio treaty sets no binding limits for individual countries, but obligations were concluded and established in the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. It entered into force in 2005. It is the first legally binding treaty that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto treaty places the greatest obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries. The Protocol’s first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. Finland, among other EU countries, ratified the Protocol in 2002. The second commitment period (2013-2020) was agreed on in 2012, and is known as the Doha Amendment to the Protocol.

In the 21st century, climate change conferences have been held almost annually. The goal is to negotiate a more effective successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. The most significant negotiations happened at the United Nations climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and the United Nations climate summit held in Paris in 2015. Despite high expectations, the Copenhagen Accord was not legally binding and did not commit countries to a binding successor to the Kyoto Protocol, unlike the Paris Agreement, which enters into force after the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period is over.

In the agreement, each individual country determinates and plans the contribution it should make to mitigate global warming. In order to ratify the agreement, each country has to sign and approve it and then enter it into force through ratification from the ultimate decision making body.

The need for international cooperation against climate change is not only about negotiating treaties that commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change affects individuals and groups differently. People who are already disadvantaged will likely suffer most from water shortage, droughts and diseases. In other words, climate change is about global justice and it poses a great challenge to the United Nations International Covenants on human rights. In addition to emission limitations, it is critical to ensure that international human rights are being protected and respected.

PROUnited Nations Photo

The environmental movement is a diverse movement for addressing environmental issues and sustainable life. It includes citizens, scientists and politicians alike. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution generated the international environmental movement when levels of air pollution in industrial centres caused concern. This sparked the first large-scale modern environmental laws in Great Britain in 1863. The aim was to regulate the detrimental air pollution.

The roots of the contemporary environmental movement are often traced back to 1962, when marine biologist Rachel Carson’s science book Silent Spring caused fierce debate by documenting the detrimental effects on the environment from the use of DDT.

Although environmental problems are increasing due to ever-expanding human activities, the environmental movement has also had some success. One of the greatest victories was in saving the ozone layer from depletion. Scientific studies suggested that the ozone layer is deteriorating due to the release of pollution containing chemical compounds, particularly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which were widely used for purposes of refrigeration. In 1985, the media reported that the ozone layer observed over Antarctica was 40% less than ten years previously. As a result of rapid international cooperation, the Montreal Protocol was drafted to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of substances that are responsible for ozone depletion, and it was agreed on two years later. Thanks to emission regulations, there is evidence of a decrease in ozone depleting substances and the ozone hole over Antarctica is slowly recovering.

For years the environmental movement has campaigned against climate change, and as concerns about the changing climate crossed over into the mainstream, new social movements dedicated to combating global warming were founded. In addition to traditional environmental organizations, the climate movement includes climate organizations, climate educators and various climate-specific organizations, such as Fossil Fuel Divestment, which aims for the removal of investment assets from companies involved in extracting fossil fuels. In addition, some entrepreneurs are taking action to tackle climate change. For instance, The Climate Leadership Council aims to, by example, encourage other businesses and organizations to move more towards a zero-carbon and sustainable way of doing business.

Karen Mardahl

Politicians and civil servants pursue climate negotiations both at the national and international level. Bills and drafts are based on scientific information, but without contributions by civil society, climate agreements would most likely not be achieved. As with any important social issue, bringing climate problems to public attention requires an active role by different organizations, businesses and social agents.

Non-governmental organizations have been fighting against climate change for decades. They aim to provoke debate, raise awareness among individuals and decision makers, advocate changes in laws and other regulations, and develop new climate-friendly operation models and bring them to public attention. Non-governmental climate organizations invest in urgent and resolute action particularly before important climate conferences. For instance, Great Britain and Finland now have a new environmental law that commits both governments to deep cuts in their emission of greenhouse gases. This was primarily a result of a significant mobilization of civil society led by Friends of the Earth’s Big Ask campaign.

In addition to non-governmental organizations, individuals can play a surprisingly great role in changing public attitudes. In 2006, the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth was released, which revolves around former United States Vice President Al Gore’s educational campaign about climate change. The film was a box office success and it has been credited for raising international public awareness and re-energizing the environmental movement.

Ilmastolaki / Maan Ystävät

Before the Industrial era, wood, water wheels and windmills generated most of our energy. The burning of coal, the invention of the steam engine and the subsequent Industrial Revolution paved the way for entirely new opportunities to produce goods quicker and cheaper than ever before. This development led to improved economic and material wellbeing for most people.

At first, coal was the main source of energy for industry, but soon oil and natural gas came into picture. World energy use increased more than ten times in the 20th century, from 911 million tonnes of oil to 9645 million tonnes as the world’s population increased from 1 billion to 6 billion. This was boosted by cheap oil coming first from Texas and soon after, the Persian Gulf oil fields, which opened in 1920. In Finland, burning fossil fuels and peat increased during the 20th century from 6 to 706 petajoules and electricity use increased from 17 gigawatt hours to nearly 80,000 gigawatt hours.

Even today coal, oil and natural gas are the most important non-renewable energy sources. Compared to them, the share of nuclear energy usage is relatively small. Renewable energy technologies are constantly under development around the world, and recently, wind power, solar power, geothermal energy and hydroelectricity technologies have improved significantly.

The Industrial Revolution has changed not only social structures, but also the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere. With respect to climate, one of the most important questions is how can we guarantee access to reliable and ample supplies of clean energy. Energy sources can be renewable or non-renewable. Renewable sources include hydroelectricity, wind power, solar power and biomass. Renewable resources replenish on a human timescale. Non-renewable energy sources – nuclear power and fossil fuels – do not recycle but get completely depleted by use.

Today, fossil fuels are the world’s primary energy source and also the most harmful for the climate. They formed by natural processes when microorganisms broke down plankton and other biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen under water millions of years ago. Over thousands of years, this organic matter, mixed with mud, got buried under heavy layers of sediment. The resulting high levels of heat and pressure caused the organic matter to chemically alter into coal, oil and natural gas.

When fossil fuels are burnt, the chemical energy contained inside is converted to heat or light. Our energy production system is mainly based on this mechanism. Burning fossil fuels increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and accelerates climate change.

Louis Vest

Energy is needed in almost every human activity: heating, transport, lighting, producing goods and using different appliances and machines. Since constant energy production and use play such an important role in the world, energy issues are closely linked to many things including intergovernmental relations.

Decisions political institutions make concerning their priorities in energy use and production is called the politics of energy. It makes of use of legislation, taxation and arrangements that guarantee energy supplies. In addition, it regulates production, control, distribution and consumption of energy. Goals and methods in energy policy have varied over time depending on political views and cultures, power structures among political parties, economics and technological developments. In contrast, foreign policy can be described as a plan of action adopted by a nation regarding how it interacts with other countries. Foreign policy aims to advance security, economic welfare, the country’s national goals and ideological objectives. In a world where energy issues are so closely entwined with all areas of life, foreign policy, politics of energy and climate politics are inextricably linked.

Significant fossil fuel reserves are located only at certain places on the Earth. However, the whole world is reliant on oil and this has enabled oil exporters to maintain control over other countries. Oil prices and global economics are closely linked, so oil producing nations are doing their best to control the amount and price of oil on the market.

Environmentally speaking, even a periodic reduction in oil consumption is good news; however, escalating issues related to petroleum supply cause economic problems, and therefore a sudden rise in the price of oil or a decrease in supply is called an oil crisis. This may be due to the oil producer’s reluctance to sell, conflicts or natural disasters in the production areas, or problems concerning transportation routes. Furthermore, current deposits are slowly becoming depleted of oil. According to observers, peak oil – the point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum has been reached, after which it is expected to enter into terminal decline – has already occurred or will occur soon.

Since 1973, a few short-term oil crises have occurred. Oil price has varied a lot since 2004 and has been, at times, exceptionally high. These price increases are the result of many factors, including the upcoming oil peak. Finding alternative energies is an essential role in today’s energy politics regardless of climate change.

Seattle Municipal Archives