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The Oceania region ranges from the lush tropical mountain ranges of Melanesia to the low lying coral atolls such as the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Tokelau and The Republic of Kiribati. The climate is strongly influenced by the ocean and the El Niсo phenomenon. Small island nations and the coastal regions—where much of the population is concentrated—are very vulnerable to increasing coastal flooding and erosion due to rising sea level. In addition, warming sea temperatures in recent years have damaged many of the region’s spectacular coral reefs, threatening one of the world’s most diverse ecosystems.
The Greenhouse Effect
Life on earth as we know it would perish from the cold without an atmosphere to trap heat. A balance of gases reradiate the suns heat back to keep the earth's surface to keep the average global temperature at 57 degrees F.
During the past century the global temperature has risen by one degree - the effects being seen in intensifying storms and rising sea levels.
What Are Greenhouse Gases?
Some greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, while others result from human activities. Naturally occurring greenhouse gases include water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone. Certain human activities, however, add to the levels of most of these naturally occurring gases:
Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere when solid waste, fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), and wood and wood products are burned.
Methane is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane emissions also result from the decomposition of organic wastes in municipal solid waste landfills, and the raising of livestock.
Nitrous oxide is emitted during agricultural and industrial activities, as well as during combustion of solid waste and fossil fuels.
Very powerful greenhouse gases that are not naturally occurring include hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs), per fluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), which are generated in a variety of industrial processes.
Each greenhouse gas differs in its ability to absorb heat in the atmosphere. HFCs and PFCs are the most heat-absorbent. Methane traps over 21 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide absorbs 270 times more heat per molecule than carbon dioxide. Often, estimates of greenhouse gas emissions are presented in units of millions of metric tons of carbon equivalents (MMTCE), which weights each gas by its GWP value, or Global Warming Potential.
Carbon dioxide is foremost in the array of greenhouse gases from human activity that increase the atmosphere's ability to retain heat.
Indeed, other than the flow of water, no mechanism in nature is more crucial than the circulation of carbon between air, land and water. It is carbon's ability to bond with most non-metals which has made it the basis of all organic compounds in both plant and animal. Terrestrial vegetation requires uses of an estimated 60 billion metric tons of carbon a year to grow and, in doing so, provides oxygen in the process. It is the complex, finely calibrated gearing of the carbon cycle that sustains life on earth.
The problem is, however, that scientists cannot be sure how long this situation will last. The capacity of the oceans, soils, and trees to continually absorb carbon is obviously limited and the concern is that the forests and other ecosystems may change from carbon sinks to carbon sources and, in doing so, release more carbon into the atmosphere than they absorb. The ramifications of this happening are quite frightening, as even mild changes in the pattern of global warming will produce scorching hot summers, fiercer storms and altered rainfall patterns.
