WORLD NEWS
December 12, 2005
Global Warming Update
World leaders meet to discuss ways to fight climate change in the future
 Former U.S. President Bill Clinton speaks at the U.N.'s global warming summit. |
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Global warming is melting the cap of ice that covers much of the Arctic Ocean. This is causing oceans to get warmer and sea levels to rise, scientists and world leaders said at a meeting on global warming. Most scientists agree this is putting plants, animals and people are at risk.
World leaders from more than 180 nations just wrapped up a meeting about the problem of global warming. Leaders from nearly 150 nations made more than 40 decisions, including continuing current efforts to reduce pollution in the future. However, the U.S. refused to take part in those efforts.
|  A woman shows her concern for the Arctic as she marches during a protest in Montreal. |
Rising Temperatures
During the past 100 years, the average temperature of earth's atmosphere has gone up 1 degree Fahrenheit. In the Arctic region, scientists say the temperature has risen 7 degrees in 50 years!
Many scientists believe that the biggest causes of global warming are new human technologies that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These gases - like carbon dioxide - are called greenhouse gases because they keep the earth warm like a greenhouse. The U.S. emits more greenhouse gases than any other nation.
A Call to Cut Pollution
The United Nations Climate Change Conference was held over two weeks in Montreal, Canada. About 10,000 people attended the meeting. It was the first meeting since the energy agreement, the Kyoto Protocol, took effect last February.
One hundred and forty countries signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The U.S. did not. President George W. Bush said he worried the agreement would hurt businesses and ruin the U.S. economy. Countries who signed the agreement promised to decrease the amount of greenhouse gases they emitted each year.
"It's such a pity the United States is still very much unwilling to join the international community…to deal with climate change," said Kenya's Emily Ojoo Massawa, the leader of the African group of nations at the meeting.
On Friday, former President Bill Clinton said President Bush is "flat wrong" to say that reducing greenhouse gas emissions will damage the U.S. economy. Clinton encouraged world leaders to find a way to work with the U.S. to fight global warming.
