The Kyoto Protocol

When trees are burned, CO2 is relinquished. The burning of astronomically immense areas of trees is known as deforestation. Human activities integrate more CO2 into the atmosphere through activities like the burning of fossil fuels. The guiding question of this investigation is, “Which carbon cycle process affects atmospheric carbon the most?” The researchers initially wanted to learn 2 things. First, the researchers wanted to learn how much carbon engenderment there would be if they incremented the amount of fossil fuels burnt by a certain amount. The researchers also wanted to learn how much carbon engenderment there would be if they incremented the amount of deforestation.

The UNFCCC is working with the various governments around the world to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere to keep the planet from warming more than 2ºC above pre-industrial temperatures (Watts, 2015). The most noted of the work is the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings that began with COP1 in Berlin back in 1995. The COP3 adopted the Kyoto Protocol, even though it wasn’t fully accepted by all member nations. The COP21 was an effort to legally bind members to their submitted plans of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), defining what level of greenhouse gas production each nation would commit to not exceeding from 2025-2030. Prior to the INDCs, a bleak outlook was forecast in 2009-2010 of global temperature rising between 4-5ºC. That figure was restated by the UNFCCC prior to the COP21 in Paris, to below 3ºC, due to the commitments of the INDCs (Watts, 2015).

Forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change because they act as a carbon sink soaking up carbon dioxide that would otherwise be free in the atmosphere and contribute to ongoing changes in climate patterns. Deforestation undermines this important carbon sink function. It is estimated that 15% of all greenhouse gas emissions are the

This carbon project has been validated and registered through a credible third-party certification system (the Verified Carbon Standard). The effort will contribute to long-term systemic change, benefitting the atmosphere and the forest ecosystem, and has been designed to produce verifiable carbon offsets in the future.

Also, by clearing forests to support agriculture, we are transferring carbon from living biomass into the atmosphere (dry wood is about 50 percent carbon).

The advent of industrialized civilization has brought to us many remarkable feats that enhance our everyday lives. Such things as automobiles, airplanes, tractors, mainframe computers, and even relatively simple machines like lawnmowers have intertwined themselves into the everyday culture of modern day industrialized countries.. These products have provided us enormous benefits compared to the types of lives our ancestors used to live. In the eyes of some, the consequences of industrial activities that have evolved around the world will not pose any problems in the future, however as most have realized, this is not true. Contemporary production processes use fossil fuels such as

“Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentrations have increased by approximately 40% since the start of the Industrial Revolution” (Wilmers et al. 2012). This increase in atmospheric CO₂ is a leading cause and contributor to Earth’s climate change with effects such as: “measurable global heat retention and elevated atmospheric temperatures, partial melting of the polar ice caps, ocean acidification, and a host of other impacts on Earth’s environments” (Wilmers et al. 2012). Earth’s ecosystems are combating this climate change by helping reduce the concentration of CO₂ and “sequestering C” (Carbon) in the atmosphere through “photosynthesis” (Wilmers et al. 2012). “Kelp forests are among

Why is the Kyoto Accord so difficult for Canada to follow, and how has it responded?

Deforestation is another known contributor to global climate change. This is by contributing to global warming. According to Nanda (2011), trees are the main absorber of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Therefore, deforestation contributes global warming because less carbon dioxide was absorbed. Furthermore, decaying of these trees produces carbon dioxide. Therefore, governments should make legislation aimed at conserving and rehabilitating destroyed forests (Solomon et al., 2011).

On December 15, 2011, the Government of Canada authoritatively told the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that Canada would practice its legitimate right to formally pull back from the Kyoto Protocol. The Environment Minister, Peter Kent, was the one who announced this. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement connected to the UNFCCC that sets internationally binding greenhouse gas reduction targets for each country that is in the agreement. There are a lot of benefits as to why Canada should stay in the agreement, but at the same time there are a few complications and setbacks that we will have to face as well. Canada will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases, save money and create jobs, and reduce drastic

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This amounts to an average of five per cent over the five-year period 2008-2012.

15 percent of the world’s global carbon emissions come from deforestation. When trees are cut down, they release carbon into the atmosphere causing global warming. When heat is trapped it sucks the moisture from the ground causing droughts. “Unless we change the present system that rewards forest destruction, forest clearing will put another 200 billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere in coming decades…,” says Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Global warming is not the only issue. Animal extinction is also a major

“The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the premise that (a)

The Wilderness Society’s Governing Council states that “No other ecosystem in the world can store as much carbon as do these forests, and it’s a capacity they have not yet begun to reach” (Bert5). Trees are very important to all of the living species. The cutting down of the trees is now nearly 4 billion trees or 35% of the total trees cut around the

Deforestation, the cutting and burning of a forest, also increases the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. A NASA page says that “when a forest is cut and burned to establish cropland and pastures, the carbon that was stored in the tree trunks (wood is about 50% carbon) joins with oxygen and is released into the atmosphere as CO2. CO2, is, of