ABSTRACT
The evidence for climate change is growing. Glaciers are rapidly melting, and sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic is shrinking. Species are migrating when they can, as their environment changes, or dying out. The climate is becoming more erratic—increasing rain in some regions, severe drought elsewhere, more violent tropical storms forming over a warmer ocean, and more frequent tornadoes in the United States. The Kyoto Protocol was the first international attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It was adopted in 1997 as an amendment to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) and came into force with sufficient ratifications in 2005. The virtually certain consequence of failing to decrease greenhouse gas emissions will be more rapid global warming, and the very likely consequences include climate change that will involve more flooding in some places and severe drought elsewhere.
