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Grades 4-6

Feeling the Heat

Vickie An

World leaders will meet in Copenhagen, Denmark, next month. They hope to agree on a plan that will limit pollution and slow global warming.

Last month, the president of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, put on his scuba gear and dove 20 feet to the bottom of a lagoon. There, he held an underwater meeting. The purpose of the ocean-floor conference? To highlight the effects of global warming on his island nation.

The Maldives, located in the Indian Ocean, is the lowest-lying country on Earth. Melting glaciers and polar ice are causing sea levels to rise. This is putting the Maldives and other low-lying areas at risk of being swallowed by the sea within the next 100 years.

What can be done? Scientists and leaders from 190 nations will try to figure that out at the United Nations climate change conference. The big event, called COP15, will take place from December 7 to 18, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Needed: A New, Green Plan

The main goal of the meeting is to come up with a new climate agreement for 2012 and beyond. That is when the existing plan, the Kyoto Protocol, will expire. The international treaty was created in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. Since then, it has been ratified by 190 nations. The countries promised to limit the amount of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), that they produced each year.

A certain amount of these gases are needed to provide a warm blanket around the Earth. Without it, the planet would freeze. But pollution is making this blanket too thick. And the Earth is heating up. When we burn fossil fuels such as coal and oil, huge amounts of greenhouse gases get pumped into the air.

The United States is the second-biggest CO2 polluter in the world, after China. But the U.S. has not agreed to the Kyoto treaty, because it fears that American businesses would suffer.

The Great Divide

The debate over who should cut greenhouse emissions has been going on for years. The U.S. has been hesitant to reduce emissions unless fast-growing nations such as China and India also lessen their use of fossil fuels.

In recent months, China has taken steps to be greener. But India has been reluctant to change. It argues that it is unfair for rich nations to ask poorer countries to cut down on emissions.

Is there hope for an agreement in Copenhagen? It will be tough, says Yvo de Boer, a U.N. official. Still, he is optimistic that the meeting could be a turning point in the fight against global warming.

Leading by Example

While world leaders work on a plan in Copenhagen, there are many things you can do to help the planet (see "Gore's Plan"). You can save fuel by walking or biking instead of riding in a car. You can start a recycling program in your community. You can plant trees. Trees absorb CO2 from the air and give off oxygen.

The people of the Maldives are doing their part. President Nasheed says his country will switch entirely to renewable energy within the next 10 years. "We are on the world's front line," he told TIME. "And, in a sense, we are its only hope."

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