Increasing levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHG) are warming the planet. As global temperatures rise, climate patterns around the world are changing.
What are greenhouse gases?
A greenhouse gas is any gas that absorbs thermal radiation from the sun and emits it back into the earth’s atmosphere. Without them, the average temperature at the surface of our planet would be around minus 18 degrees Celsius rather than 15 degrees Celsius.
Greenhouse gases include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone.
Human activities since the first industrial revolution have caused a 40% increase in carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. This increase in carbon dioxide emissions is primarily from burning fossil fuels for energy to heat our homes, drive our cars and run our factories. Other contributors include deforestation, changes in land use, soil erosion and agriculture. Energy production and use account for over 80% of Canada’s GHGs.
The unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide levels is warming the planet. Global average temperatures are currently 1 degree Celsius warmer than the pre-industrial average. Temperature increases are more pronounced in higher latitudes, such as in Canada where temperature increases are up to twice the global average.
Residents of Windsor-Essex are already feeling the costs of a changing climate with an increase in the frequency and severity of floods, shoreline erosion, drought, disease, and heatwaves. For more information on how we’re adapting to those changes as a region, please visit the WEC3 website HERE.
In the past few years, climate change issues have become a greater priority for the Essex County Region and the community has been coming together to address climate concerns. Internationally, 1,490 jurisdictions in 30 countries have declared a climate emergency.
In September 2019, the Windsor Essex Environment Committee approved a recommendation to declare a climate emergency for the area. Since then, the City of Windsor, the County of Essex, the Town of Amherstburg, and the Town of Tecumseh have joined over 500 Canadian municipalities in declaring a climate emergency.
Climate change is a fundamental threat to all life on the planet and people’s livelihoods. Scientists warn that the consequences of climate change for humans, animals and plants will become more severe if the average global temperature continues to rise.
Carbon emissions would need to be cut by at least 45% by 2030, and be lowered to zero by mid-century, to keep temperatures within a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase.
In 2015, a historic agreement was signed in Paris by 195 countries to hold “the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change”.
The Paris Agreement is a call to action to all sectors of society – government, business, civil society, and individuals.
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