Global warming is the hottest topic for world leaders by Corina Ciubotaru

Nobody knows how long it will take, but scientists are now sure that ocean levels will rise and water will cover many waterfront areas. Arctic ice is melting and this will have an important effect on all the oceans' levels. Contrary to popular belief, there isn't even anything we can do about it, as the phenomenon is due to something called the ice-albedo feedback: the sun heats some water which in turn warms the ice that melts and can not reflect the sun's heat any longer. Less ice is formed in warmer waters and less radiation gets reflected so the cycle is continued. Scientists fear that this process is beyond our control and that water levels will increasingly rise regardless of our attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over 80 world leaders have gathered on September 24th at the United Nations to advance the agenda on preventing climate change, in the biggest summit ever on environmental issues. They figured out that if we started changing our habits now, slowing global warming might be done at a smaller price, but it's important that we all chip in. The European Union has come up with a program to reduce emissions by 20 percent before 2020 and it challenged developed countries to do the same but the biggest challenge would be to reduce emissions in the United States, currently the biggest polluter. Some states have already taken action, a law being recently enforced in California to reduce industrial pollution by 25 percent by 2020.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_sc/rising_seas;_ylt=AtldQ1MBLyxOvt8R2iw5Yoes0NUE

by Corina Ciubotaru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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