What is Global Climate Change aka Global Warming?

Global climate change refers to the overall warming of Mother Earth caused by automobiles and industrial activities. It disrupts the stability that all life has depended on in the last 1000 years. It poses a serious threat to our way of life as Indigenous peoples who live close to the land and water and depend on her resources to sustain life and the future of our unborn generations.

Over the century, human activities of the industrialized world have caused excessive amounts of greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere. The burning of coal, oil, and gas and cutting down forests cause global climate change by releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This is causing global temperatures to rise, which affects all natural cycles that have sustained life on Mother Earth. Global climate change has caused severe disruption and change in water, land, air, and many other resources and living things. Extreme weather, such as frequent storms, floods, droughts, heat, snow, and rain are occurring in places that never happened before. With increasing global climate change people are hit by water shortages, new diseases, hunger, and displacement leading to social conflicts over resources. These events have devastated communities by wiping out their basis of survival, such as food, water, air, and shelter. Without the economic resources to defend themselves increasing global climate change leaves these communities vulnerable to its consequences.

Greenhouse Gases and the Greenhouse Effect

Greenhouse gases (GHG) such as carbon dioxide and methane are produced from the burning of fossil fuels. These gases when released into the atmosphere trap heat that results in keeping our Mother Earth's surface warm. This is called the greenhouse effect (GHE). It is the process that has kept Mother Earth hospitable for us to live in. Without the stable balanced amount of greenhouse gases, Mother Earth would be either too cold or too hot for us live in.

This greenhouse effect is named this way because of a similar effect produced by the glass panes of a greenhouse. Mother Earth's atmosphere is all around us. It is the air that we breathe. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Mother Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches Mother Earth's surface, land, water, and the biosphere absorb the sunlight's energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing our world to heat up.

Scientists point out that this stable balance has been changing because of increased greenhouse gas accumulation. This has changed the overall temperature our Mother Earth's surface. In the last century, specifically from the period of industrial revolution until now, the temperature has increased 1 degree. This temperature increase is significant because global temperature has been relatively stable for the last 1000 years. Temperature is predicted to rise even more as greenhouse gas emission increases in the world. This temperature change will bring devastating impacts to the natural cycles and resources on Mother Earth.