Wait a minute. China is already the world’s largest producer of greenhouse gases and expects to triple its liquefied natural gas demand over the next 10 years, but also claims to be working to reduce carbon emissions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair seems convinced that China is committed to reducing carbon emissions beginning in 2011.

PM Blair told news agencies that he believes reduced carbon emissions are at the heart of the Chinese economic growth plans. All of this in the shadow of a recently approved deal for ExxonMobil and PetroChina to export Australian Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to China in record-setting amounts.

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Deforestation is the permanent loss of forests and woodlands. Tree farms are not included in this definition, since they are farmed rather than naturally occurring. Naturally occurring forests and woodlands cover about 21% of the earth’s land mass. Unfortunately, about 1.8 million square feet of natural forest is being destroyed every minute!

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Permafrost is defined as soil that has remained at or below 0 degrees C (32 degrees F) for two years or more. There does not need to be ice or snow present to identify permafrost. Most permafrost is located near the North and South Poles and dates back millions of years. The area of the Earth covered by permafrost is constantly shrinking and global warming is credited with the loss of large amounts of ancient permafrost.

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As with any controversial, highly publicized and dramatic issue as global warming, there are many points of view. It should not be expected that everyone will have the same understanding of these historic circumstances. In fact, emotions run very high when the possibility of the end of life as we know it presents itself. Some persons take the threat seriously while others look for any way to discredit the possibility. Granted, there have been times when scientists predicted disaster and the feared event never happened.

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This is part 2 of the “Global Warming effects article” …continued here:

Greenhouse gases and CO2
The Sun’s rays hit the earth as long-wave radiation, which passes through greenhouse gases easily. However when they hit the earth the warm the planet and the energy is then radiated out from Earth as short wave infra-red radiation (heat) which is easily absorbed by greenhouses gases before it escapes into space. So the world gets warmer. This is the greenhouse effect and the leading greenhouse gases impacting on the environment are water vapor, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.

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