Global warming is the term used to describe a gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earths atmosphere and

its oceans, a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earths climate. Even though it is an ongoing debate, it is proved by the scientists that the planet is warming. The 29th century is experiencing a continued increase of Earths mean atmospheric temperature by about 1.4 degrees F and about two thirds of it occurring since 1980. This is global warming is affecting the natures balance and has a huge impact on life like continued heat waves, and sudden occurrence of storms and floods. Dont we see time to time the epidemics that are devastating to human life and the flooding of the farmlands that puts economy in a deep hole? Scientific evidence indicates that since 1950, the worlds climate has been warming, primarily as a result of emissions from non -stop burning of fossil fuels and the razing of tropical forests. Since the industrial revolution till this day, there is a constant emission of the carbon into the atmosphere, everything we do we leave carbon footprints. It is a man made cause of the global warming. The global emissions jumped 3 percent in 2011 and are expected to jump another 2.6 percent in 2012, researchers reported. The greenhouse effect is a process by which the greenhouse gases absorb thermal radiation; these are then reradiated in all directions. But when some of these radiations come back to the surface and lower atmosphere, it causes increase in the average surface temperature leading to global warming. Global warming Causes The causes are many of which the main culprit is the increase in the greenhouse gases that is produced by burning fossil fuel and deforestation, thus intensifying the greenhouse effect leading to global warming. The four main contributors of the greenhouse effect are, water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone. Mining for coal and oil releases methane in the atmosphere. More ever the leakage from natural gas fields and landfills are additional source of methane. Excessive cutting down of the trees is another factor causing global warming. When deforestation happens the efficiency by which carbon dioxide is stored and oxygen released by the green plants are decreased to a huge rate in turn causing increased concentration of carbon dioxide that leads to increased greenhouse effect. The nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes are other factors that cannot be forgotten as the cause of Global Warming. Another source of methane is methane clathrate, a compound containing large amounts of methane trapped in the crystal structure of ice. As methane escapes from the Arctic seabed, the rate of global warming will increase significantly. Ice caps and glaciers reflect sunlight, bouncing high temperature sun -rays back into space away from the Earth. When these icecaps are removed the earth gets warmer as the dark oceans absorb much thermal radiation from the sun. Some regions may be wet with rain and some areas will suffer drought due to global warming. The climatic changes happen due to global warming. Seasonal changes are unpredictable unexpected thunderstorms might result as mentioned earlier. The burning of wood (should be reduced to a greater extent) releases oxidizable carbon to the atmosphere whose presence in greater amount causes the elevation of temperature. There is strong evidence that emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were the major cause of the recent abnormal warming. Like carbon CFC do not trap heat but in the presence of UV rays the chlorine gets detached from CFC, drifts up into the stratosphere and these unattached chlorines catalytically convert Ozone molecules into Oxygen molecules depleting the ozone layer. The effect of global warming is dangerous to life on earth, both the human and animal existence. Due to the hear agriculture and farming, forestry and fishery are seriously hurt. Water temperature being elevated, the fauna and flora are deprived of their natural habitat that is detrimental to their growth and might lead to distinction of the species there.

Higher level of carbon dioxide causes the acidification of the oceans. According to the report of WWF on coral reefs says that coral populations will collapse by 2100 due to increased temperatures and ocean acidification.

The climatic changes are seen worldwide. Exceptional warm summers are another effect of this global warming and Europe and America have already witnessed these changes considerably. The summer of 1998 predicted to be the warmest in the century. Winter of 2003-2004 was the 33rd coldest in the North Eastern America since the records began in 1896. Scientists are struggling to predict how the heat building in the seas and atmosphere will affect the strength, intensity and occurrence of the cyclones, typhoons and storms. The increase in sea level due to the ice cap melt has caused the receding of the shorelines, which have been recorded by the researchers. According to the researchers the maximum wind speeds of the strongest tropical cyclones have increased significantly since 1981. Global warming might cause increased incidence of Lyme disease, dengue fever and malaria because the mosquitoes that are the transmitting agents for these diseases requires winter temperatures of about 18 degrees Celsius for their survival. The increased floods and damages to sewage and water infrastructures further encourage the spread of diseases. The melting glaciers, polar ice caps, and other frozen grounds are causing and will continue to cause the rise in sea levels. This will result in flooding and displacement of human population worldwide. The fresh water polar ice caps melting into the salt- water oceans alter the ocean gulf- stream patterns causing major changes on the temperature pattern around the Earth. This changing environment and temperature in polar region will endanger the flora and fauna and imbalance in the ecosystem. The ozone layer keeps out the ultra violet radiations from the sun that harms lives on the earth. Some human made gases rises into the atmosphere and destroys the ozone layer. Therefore global warming involves the pollution of the atmosphere, which in turn leads to the depletion of the ozone layer. The global warming will delay the ozone recovery at Arctic regions making these people to be exposed to a ultraviolet dose, which is relatively higher. The penetration of the more ultra-violet radiations from the sun to the earth poses threats to lives like skin cancer. The affect on the food chain could also be disastrous. Because UV rays kill plankton in the sea, the fish and whales that live off of plankton would eventually starve and disappear. This would then affect the next link in the chain those creatures that live off of fish and so it would continue throughout the chain. The chlorine that gets detached from CFC by UV rays, drifts up into the stratosphere and these unattached chlorines catalytically convert Ozone molecules into Oxygen molecules depleting the ozone layer, which in turn results in cascade of events leading to global warming and associated harms to life.
Global warming Prevention and human efforts on reducing it. Global warming has become a major problem as we move on to 21st century and beyond. Like the old say goes, prevention is better than cure. We have done enough damage, knowingly and unknowingly we have contributed to global warming. Our efforts and determined contribution to reduce global warming and spare the ecosystem to recover thereby cautiously working restore the balance of nature is very urgent. Pollution of the atmosphere has to be checked and anything related to the release of the greenhouse gases should be monitored. Deforestation should be stopped as it causes the concentration of carbon at a greater extent. It has been said that it takes roughly 19 trees to make one ton of paper and that the usage of one ton of recycled paper will save approximately 17 trees. The burning of wood should be reduced to a greater extent as it releases oxidizable carbon to the atmosphere whose presence in greater amount causes the elevation of temperature. LPG stoves can replace the fire wood burning. Bio gas plants can be encouraged in village units. Composting will help you to dispose of biodegradable waste. The use of CFCs is a major reason for depletion of the ozone layer causing global warming. The discharges and exhaust from automobiles also causes global warming. We could reduce it by identifying fuel-efficient cars, use bio-fuels, correct the engine design, or using an electric car.

By not wasting energy at home we can avoid to some extent the global warming. This includes shutting down the systems when not in usage and also buying energy efficient equipments. Solar energy, wind energy and hydroelectricity can be used that reduces the pollution of the atmosphere to a greater extent. Global warming is mainly due to the ignorance of the people and the dont care attitude of few. Even at a younger stage it is wiser to educate the children to be efficient consumers and be responsible users of energy and resources remembering that the global warming is slowly destroying the earth and its natural habitat. People should be reminded that they share the earth and its resources with the other species that keep the ecosystem balanced, if the balance is gone then the life if every single species is threatened and even humans will not be spared from this. Media can play a role in educating the people of the phenomenon of global warming that has already taking a huge toll. This wont disappear overnight. As we thoughtfully practice ways of preventing the causes that causes global warming one day the earth will be restored. Planting trees is a very good start that can help diluting the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. A single tree will absorb approximately one ton of carbon dioxide during its lifetime. Together we can make a difference!

The Philippines, aided by the international community, is in the early stages of digging out from the devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan, which struck on Friday, leaving, according to early estimates,thousands of people dead and more than 650,000 displaced. The United Nations is estimating that 2.5 million people in the country are in need of food and that more than 20,000 homes have been damaged or destroyed. Part of the reason the damage was so severe is that the typhoon (what those of us in the western hemisphere would call a hurricane) was one of, if not the, strongest on record. Climatologists have said that winds climbed to 195 miles per hour, with gusts hitting 230 mph. It was less than a year ago that the Philippines was hit by another typhoon Typhoon Bopha that killed 1,900 people and caused more than $1 billion in damage. The latest pummeling his country has endured was evidently the last straw for Naderev "Yeb" Sano, the lead Filipino representative to the current round of United Nations climate change talks. In an impassioned speech yesterday, Sano said it's high time that the world acknowledge the culprit behind these mega-storms: [See a collection of political cartoons on energy policy.] To anyone who continues to deny the reality that is climate change, I dare you to get off your ivory tower and away from the comfort of your armchair. I dare you to go to the islands of the Pacific, the islands of the Caribbean and the islands of the Indian ocean and see the impacts of rising sea levels; to the mountainous regions of the Himalayas and the Andes to see communities confronting glacial floods, to the Arctic where communities grapple with the fast dwindling polar ice caps, to the large deltas of the Mekong, the Ganges, the Amazon, and the Nile where lives and livelihoods are drowned, to the hills of Central America that confronts similar monstrous hurricanes, to the vast savannas of Africa where climate change has likewise become a matter of life and death as food and water becomes scarce. Not to forget the massive hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern seaboard of North America. And if that is not enough, you may want to pay a visit to the Philippines right now. Sano added, "What my country is going through as a result of this extreme climate event is madness. The climate crisis is madness. We can stop this madness." But the latest reports show that we're not doing a good job of stopping the madness at all. According to a new International Energy Agency outlook, "Energy-related carbon-dioxide emissions are projected to rise by 20% to 2035, leaving the world on track for a long-term average temperature increase of 3.6 C, far above the internationallyagreed 2 C climate target." That projection takes into account already-announced efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change, so we're not doing anywhere near enough with what's currently on the table. The U.N. Environment Program agrees, stating in a recent report that "even if nations meet their current climate pledges the door to many options to limit temperature increase to a lower target of 1.5 C will be closed." So not

only are we doing too little now, but we're losing the opportunity to take less-painful measures than those that will be required down the road when the problem is more severe. [See a collection of political cartoons on gas prices.] Now, no one event, super-storm or otherwise, is proof positive of climate change. Maybe Typhoon Haiyan was just a freak storm that would have happened anyway. Perhaps climate change played a tiny role, the absence of which wouldn't have lessened the damage. But research has linked climate change and the severity, if not the frequency, of hurricanes. Rising sea levels will also make the storm surges that come with those hurricanes worse (and it seems the storm surge was the real killer in the Philippines, as it was during Hurricane Sandy). And even if climate change had nothing to do with Haiyan at all, the typhoon provides a stark reminder that, unless the world can get its act together, super-storms could very well go from extraordinary to just plain ordinary. Sano, the Filipino climate negotiator, has pledged to go on a hunger strike while at the 12-day climate change talks "until a meaningful outcome is in sight." Such an outcome would be doing us all a favor if it keeps storms like Haiyan from becoming the new normal. Just as the world was beginning to take in the almost unimaginable devastation wrought by typhoon Haiyan, a young Filipino diplomat, Naderev Sano, was getting ready to lead his country's negotiations in the UN climate talks in Warsaw, Poland. Yeb, as he is known, is a scientist and head of his country's national climate commission and had flown out of Manila just hours before the vastness of Haiyan had become apparent. By Monday morning, Sano knew that the Philippines had been struck by possibly the strongest storm ever measured, killing many thousands of people and making millions homeless. He took the floor and, in some trepidation in front of the delegates of 190 countries, gave an extraordinary, passionate speech in which he clearly linked super typhoon Haiyan to manmade climate change and urged the world to wake up to the reality of what he said was happening from latin America to south east Asia and the US. He lambasted the rich countries, and dared climate change deniers to go to his country to see for themselves what was happening. When he sat down, sobbing, he was given a standing ovation. This was not just diplomatic theatricals or righteous grandstanding by a developing-country diplomat about the snaillike speed of the climate talks, which have dragged on for years and are not likely to conclude until 2015. What few people in Warsaw knew until Sano had nearly finished his speech was that even as he was addressing the UN, his brother was digging people out of the rubble of the ruined city ofTacloban and he and his family still did not know the fate of other relatives. Normally stone-hearted diplomats broke down, and Sano, who calls himself a "revolutionary" and a "philosopher" on Twitter [@yebsano], said later he would go on hunger strike for the whole of the two-week meeting. In the last 24 hours he has been joined by 30 activists. Just as significantly, his speech has reopened the growing debate about whether the extreme weather events seen around the world over the past few years, including Hurricane Sandy, the melting of the Arctic sea ice and heatwaves in the US, Russia and Australia, can be attributed to manmade climate change. If they can, the argument goes, then the urgency of addressing the problem becomes incontrovertible; if it doesn't, then it allows countries to continue delaying action or reducing their commitments. Logic, at least, suggests a clear link between Haiyan and a warming world. Storms receive their energy from the ocean and the warming oceans that we can expect from global warming should therefore make superstorms such as Haiyan more likely. New research suggests that the Pacific is, indeed, warming possibly at its fastest rate in 10,000 years. If the extra heat stored in the oceans is released into the atmosphere, then the severity of storms will inevitably increase. In short, a warmer world will probably feature more extreme weather. This week, atmospheric scientists were clear. "Typhoons, hurricanes and all tropical storms draw their vast energy from the warmth of the sea. We know sea-surface temperatures are warming pretty much around the planet, so that's a pretty direct influence of climate change on the nature of the storm," said Will Steffen, director of the Australian National University (ANU) climate change institute.

"The current consensus is that climate change is not making the risk of hurricanes any greater, but there are physical arguments and evidence that there is a risk of more intense hurricanes," says Myles Allen, head of the climate dynamics group at the University of Oxford. The consensus of climate scientists is increasingly that super storms will become more frequent. According to a recent special report by the Intergovernmental panel on climate change: "The average tropical cyclone maximum wind speed is likely to increase, but the global frequency of tropical cyclones is likely to decrease or remain unchanged." In September, the IPCC's fifth assessment stated, more cautiously: "Time series of cyclone indices such as power dissipation, an aggregate compound of tropical cyclone frequency, duration, and intensity that measures total wind energy by tropical cyclones, show upward trends in the North Atlantic and weaker upward trends in the western North Pacific since the late 1970s, but interpretation of longer-term trends is again constrained by data quality concerns." In other words, the best science says there is some evidence that storm intensity has already increased, at least in the North Atlantic, but there's not enough data to say categorically that any particular weather event can be linked to climate change. But the science is moving on quickly and it is now possible, with new modelling methods, to quantify and attribute the changed odds of any given event happening. "Because of the random nature of weather, it had been assumed until recently that no single event can be attributed to climate change. However, with new research methods and better quality data, scientists are increasingly able to connect the dots between extreme weather events and climate change," says James Bradbury,formerly a researcher with the World Resources Institute in Washington and now with the US department of energy. "For example, one can quantify the odds of a typical heatwave happening and estimate how much a warmer world would load the dice toward the more frequent occurrence of a similar event. Or, to understand the causes of melting sea-ice or severe drought, researchers can use sophisticated climate models to help identify and potentially isolate various factors that could individually contribute or dynamically interact to influence climate conditions in a particular region," he says. Evidence that climate change makes heatwaves, superstorms and droughts far more likely is growing. Earlier this year, scientists at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the UK's Met Office, and the research teams from 16 other global institutions tried to calculate how much climate change had possibly influenced 12 extreme weather events that occurred in 2012. By no means all could be linked, they concluded, but they agreed that it had helped raise the temperatures during the run of 100F (37.7C) days in last year's US heatwave, and was behind the record loss of Arctic sea ice and the storm surge of hurricane Sandy, plus several other extremes. They were less certain about Britain's wet summer and the drought in Spain. Russians wear facemasks in Moscow to protect themselves from forest fire smog during the 2010 heatwave. Photograph: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images

"Determining the causes of extreme events remains challenging," says Thomas R Karl, director of the national climate data centre. Allen, whose work has shown that global warming tripled the odds of the severe 2010 Russian heatwave and tripled the risk of the widespread flooding in England in 2000, says extreme weather can be linked to climate change given enough computer time. He says the influence of climate change on typhoon Haiyan could be calculated in future: "If we used the same tools as are used now to make seasonal weather forecasts, there would be a straightforward answer." A 2013 study by MIT's Prof Kerry Emmanuel found that the most intense cyclones category 3 to 5 will increase with climate change and also found that "increases in tropical cyclones are most prominent in the western North Pacific", ie where typhoon Haiyan struck. Ordinary people have less trouble untangling climate change from natural events. Talk to farmers in the Philippines, Nepal, south east Asia, Latin America, much of Africa and Latin America, and most will say that they are seeing more extreme storms, unseasonal rains, and more droughts and heatwaves. Their observations are not "peer-reviewed" by scientists, but their memory is usually good, and invariably supports national records.

The Philippines has been particularly hard hit by extreme events, being the first land mass that typhoons encounter on their usual track westwards from the mid Pacific. Haiyan was the third superstorm to strike the archipelago in a year, coming after seven major typhoons in October alone. Typhoon Trami caused massive flooding on the island of Luzon in August, while Bopha killed around 2,000 people in December last year. Moreover, the Philippine government's raw statistics suggest the region's typhoons are getting stronger. From 1947 to 1960, the strongest to hit the country was Amy in December 1951, with a highest wind speed recorded at 240kph in Cebu. From 1961 to 1980, the highest wind speed recorded was 275kph in October 1970. In the past 13 years, the highest wind speed has soared to 320kph, recorded by Reming in November to December 2006. "Menacingly, the Philippine typhoons are getting stronger and stronger. If this is due to climate change, we'd better be prepared for even stronger ones in the future," says Romulo Virola, head of the government's national statistics board. Damage in New Jersey in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy in 2012. Photograph: Reuters What is certain is that extreme weather events are on the rise globally and that greenhouse gas emissions are rising inexorably. The US alone has experienced 25 extreme weather events since 2011 that each caused more than $1bn in damages. A new report by the Norwegian met office shows that precipitation in Europe has become more severe and more frequent, that winter rainfall has decreased over southern Europe and the Middle East and that there are more and longer heatwaves and fewer extremely cold days and nights. The evidence is overwhelming that climate change is happening in developing countries, says Oxfam, which works in most of the world's most vulnerable nations. "In 2012 the drought in Russia cut the grain harvest by nearly 25%, in Pakistan the devastating 2010 flood destroyed over 570,000 hectares of crop land and affected more than 20m people. The 2011 drought in East Africa affected over 13 million people and led to a famine in Somalia," says a recent Oxfam report. According to NOAA, July 2013 marked the 341st consecutive month with a global temperature above the 20thcentury average. Thomas Karl, director of NOAA's climate office said: "We believe there is an important human component explaining these record-breaking temperatures, and that's the increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere." Extreme weather killed 530,000 people between 1993 and 2012 and caused more than $2.5tn of damage, according to an annual risk report published on Tuesday by Germanwatch, a thinktank partly funded by the German government. The Philippines was rated second most affected country after Haiti, which lost 9.5% of its economy, just above Pakistan, which was hit by immense floods. Sano, now on hunger strike, called for a redefinition of "disaster". "We must stop calling events like these as natural disasters," he told the UN. "It is not natural when science already tells us that global warming will induce more intense storms. It is not natural when the human species has already profoundly changed the climate." PNoy urges countries to have moral responsibility to end climate change November 13, 2013 3:22pm

Tags: Super Typhoon Yolanda President Benigno Aquino III has urged countries contributing immensely to the global warning to have a sense of moral responsibility and help end climate change. To that most-developed countries that are contributing immensely to the global warming, there has to be a sense of moral responsibility that what they wreak is playing havoc on the lives of so many others who are less capable of defending for themselves, Aquino said in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour Tuesday. He said the effects of climate change is very real in the Philippines. We are, again, at the tail-end. When wet seasons are supposed to have been over and we have the super typhoon. It wreaks havoc on our planting season wherein our farmers are getting hard pressed to adjust to this global climate change, he said.

Aquino reminded the leaders of different countries that we all live in one planet. Either we come up with a solution that everybody adheres to and cooperates with or let us be prepared to meet disasters, ever increasing disasters on a global level, he said. The President noted that during the wet season, rains seldom come and dry months suddenly become very, very wet. For instance since I assumed office, practically every year when we are supposed to be in the Christmas spirit where we never had typhoons, we have very, very strong and devastating typhoons like what happened last year, he said, referring to Typhoon Pablo which ravaged parts of Mindanao in 2012. I think its already an accepted reality for the Filipino community that global climate change is a reality and there should be no debate that this is happening, he added. During the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes 19th Conference of Parties (COP), Philippine's lead climate change negotiator Naderev Sao called for global solidarity to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to help vulnerable countries withstand the impacts of extreme weather. Sao was emotional in his opening speech as his hometown Leyte was one of the hardest hit by Typhoon Yolanda, the 24th storm to hit the Philippines this year and one of the world's strongest on record. He lamented that, twenty years since the climate negotiations started, the world has yet to find a effort to stop humankinds harmful interference with the global climate. Previous climate change talks have ended in diluted compromises and commitments that have yet to be fulfilled. Sao urged developed countries to do more to cut their greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming. The COP should also assure the developing world of funding for adaptation projects and mobilization of the Green Climate Fund to help vulnerable countries and communities become more resilient. The COP should also address the loss and damage from dangerous climate impacts by poor countries like the Philippines, who have to bear the brunt of extreme weather conditions. According to Sao, about 5% of the Philippines gross domestic product is cut yearly by the effects of climate change. Amita O. Legaspi /LBG, GMA News People vs Vera Cu Unjieng was convicted by the trial court in Manila. He filed for reconsideration which was elevated to the SC and the SC remanded the appeal to the lower court for a new trial. While awaiting new trial, he appealed for probation alleging that the he is innocent of the crime he was convicted of. Judge Tuason of the Manila CFI directed the appeal to the Insular Probation Office. The IPO denied the application. However, Judge Vera upon another request by petitioner allowed the petition to be set for hearing. The City Prosecutor countered alleging that Vera has no power to place Cu Unjieng under probation because it is in violation of Sec. 11 Act No. 4221 which provides that the act of Legislature granting provincial boards the power to provide a system of probation to convicted person. Nowhere in the law is stated that the law is applicable to a city like Manila because it is only indicated therein that only provinces are covered. And even if Manila is covered by the law it is unconstitutional because Sec 1 Art 3 of the Constitution provides equal protection of laws. The said law provides absolute discretion to provincial boards and this also constitutes undue delegation of power. Further, the said probation law may be an encroachment of the power of the executive to provide pardon because providing probation, in effect, is granting freedom, as in pardon.

ISSUE: Whether or not there is undue delegation of power.

HELD: The act of granting probation is not the same as pardon. In fact it is limited and is in a way an imposition of penalty. There is undue delegation of power because there is no set standard provided by Congress on how provincial boards must act in carrying out a system of probation. The provincial boards are given absolute discretion which is violative of the constitution and the doctrine of the non-delegability of power. Further, it is a violation of equity so protected by the constitution. The challenged section of Act No. 4221 in section 11 which reads as follows: This Act shall apply only in those provinces in which the respective provincial boards have provided for the salary of a probation officer at rates not lower than those now provided for provincial fiscals. Said probation officer shall be appointed by the Secretary of Justice and shall be subject to the direction of the Probation Office. This only means that only provinces that can provide appropriation for a probation officer may have a system of probation within their locality. This would mean to say that convicts in provinces where no probation officer is instituted may not avail of their right to probation.