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Climate change Indicators

12/2/2013

Climate Change is a major environmental problem facing the globe today. It is decribed as a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. a change in global climate patterns apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards, attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels.
It may be a change in the average weather conditions or a change in the distribution of weather events with respect to an average, for example, greater or fewer extreme weather events. Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the whole Earth.

The Indicators
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there are seven indicators that are increasing and would be expected to increase in a warming world, they are: Humidity; Atmospheric Temperature; Sea surface temeperature; Sea level; Ocean Heat Content; Temperature over oceans, and; Temperature over land.

Three indicators are decreasing and would be expected to decrease even more, they are: Sea ice; Glaciers, and; Snow cover.

Sources

Young Europeans Discuss Sustainable Development: http://www.ensaa.eu/index.php/climate-change/97-defining-climate-change.html
Intergovernmental Panel onh Climate Change (IPCC): http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/mains1.html
International Energy agency (IEA): http://www.iea.org/topics/climatechange/
United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC): http://unfccc.int/essential_background/convention/background/items/2536.php
Victorian Center for Climate Change Adaptation Research (VCCCAR): http://www.vcccar.org.au/climate-change-adaptation-definitions

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Sustainable Development (SD)

9/2/2013

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What is Sustainable Development (SD)?
The most frequently quoted definition of Sustainable Development is from Our Common Future, also known as the Brundtland Report: Sustainable development is "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

It contains within it two key concepts:

the concept of 'needs', in particular the essential needs of the world's poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment's ability to meet present and future needs.

Thus the goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of sustainability in all countries - developed or developing, market-oriented or centrally planned. Interpretations will vary, but must share certain general features and must flow from a consensus on the basic concept of sustainable development and on a broad strategic framework for achieving it.

Development involves a progressive transformation of economy and society. A development path that is sustainable in a physical sense could theoretically be pursued even in a rigid social and political setting. But physical sustainability cannot be secured unless development policies pay attention to such considerations as changes in access to resources and in the distribution of costs and benefits. Even the narrow notion of physical sustainability implies a concern for social equity between generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation.

The Concept Sustainable Development focuses on the following:

The satisfaction of human needs and aspirations: Sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life.
Living standards that go beyond the basic minimum are sustainable only if consumption standards everywhere have regard for long-term sustainability.
Meeting essential needs depends in part on achieving full growth potential, and sustainable development clearly requires economic growth in places where such needs are not being met.
Though the issue is not merely one of population size but of the distribution of resources, sustainable development can only be pursued if demographic developments are in harmony with the changing productive potential of the ecosystem.
A society may in many ways compromise its ability to meet the essential needs of its people in the future - by overexploiting resources, for example. The direction of technological developments may solve some immediate problems but lead to even greater ones.
At a minimum, sustainable development must not endanger the natural systems that support life on Earth: the atmosphere, the waters, the soils, and the living beings.
Sustainability requires that long before these Limits are reached, the world must ensure equitable access to the constrained resource and reorient technological efforts to relieve the presume.
Most renewable resources are part of a complex and interlinked ecosystem, and maximum sustainable yield must be defined after taking into account system-wide effects of exploitation.
Sustainable development requires that the rate of depletion of non renewable resources should foreclose as few future options as possible.
Sustainable development requires the conservation of plant and animal species.
Sustainable development requires that the adverse impacts on the quality of air, water, and other natural elements are minimized so as to sustain the ecosystem's overall integrity.
In essence, sustainable development is a process of change in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development; and institutional change are all in harmony and enhance both current and future potential to meet human needs and aspirations.

Sources

International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD) http://www.iisd.org/sd/
Sustainable Development-UN http://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
UN Documents http://www.un-documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I

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