Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming Evaluation Jennifer Marshall ECO/370 September 2, 2013 Ronda Jantz

The Kyoto Protocol was an international treaty that was proposed to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions with legally binding signatures and expectation of ratification by industrialized countries especially. However, being an international treaty, compliance or ratification is not required but suggested in order to mitigate the global climate change that is occurring.

Climate being the characteristic condition of the earth’s atmosphere over a specific area of the planet for a long period of time can be in fact altered by activities of man-kind that consist of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Since the industrial revolution, fossil fuels and other greenhouse gas emissions such as methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone depleting substances have increased in the atmosphere to the point of altering the composition and increasing the global temperature by “about 1.1 degree F over just the last 30 years” (New England Aquarium, 2013). This is the concept of global climate change. The increases in atmospheric greenhouse gases need to be mitigated. “In 2007, the IPCC published a series of scenarios ranging from “business as usual/no actions taken” to “aggressive actions taken” to reduce climate change. Models based on these scenarios from the IPCC 2007 report predict that average global surface temperatures will likely rise by an additional 2 to 11.5 degrees F (1.1 to 6.4 degrees C) above the 1980s-1990s average by 2100. This temperature increase will be accompanied by other environmental changes such as an increase in global sea level up to two feet or more”(New England Aquarium,2013). This makes for unsuitable living conditions for many species.

Industrialized countries and developing countries