Quamrul Haider

It is obvious that global efforts to combat climate change—that were agreed upon at the 21st Conference of Parties in Paris—have already gone off the rails.

The temperature of the Earth changes over geologic time. During periods of glaciation, it was about five degrees Celsius cooler and in the interglacial period about five degrees warmer.

Every year since 1995, our leaders or their representatives met at the so-called Conference of Parties, debating climate change, global warming in particular.

Our planet is under tremendous stress. During the last week of January, major cities in the US Midwest and Northeast were colder than some regions in Antarctica.

Climate change has become a political football in the last 20 years. The “un”-stable American genius once mocked climate change as a Chinese hoax.

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, we have pumped nearly 2,000 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Moreover, in April of this year, the average concentration of carbon dioxide reached a dubious milestone—410 parts per million—according to data recorded at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Carbon dioxide hasn't been this high in millions of years.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concedes that limiting the rise in global temperature under two degrees Celsius before the end of this century is impossible without reducing emission of carbon dioxide to zero by 2050.

Today, we are witnessing a lively, sometimes acrimonious, debate over global warming. Science, economics and politics are all mixed up in this debate.

Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions might be affecting more than just the climate. For the first time, scientists at NASA presented evidence that the orientation of the Earth's spin axis is changing because of global warming.

The world's oceans constitute a vast natural reservoir for receiving and storing solar energy. They take in solar energy in proportion to their surface area, nearly three times that of land. As the sun warms the oceans, it creates a significant temperature difference between the surface water and the deeper water to which sunlight doesn't penetrate.

It is with profound sorrow we write this piece about our dear friend Imtiaz Hasan Habib (1949-2018), who died peacefully while asleep in the early morning hours of August 27 at his home in Norfolk, Virginia.

During a recent trip to Bermuda, what impressed me most about this island nation were the tidy pastel houses with stucco exteriors and artistically built brilliant white roofs with grooves perfectly placed amid the palm trees for which the island is famous.

He tiny carbon footprint of nuclear fuel has made nuclear energy an important player in the battle against climate change. Yet this advantage would be moot if nuclear power plants cannot operate, or became too dangerous to operate because of global warming.

After a river is dredged, its banks will become prone to erosion. Eroded banks will stimulate further build-up of silt, exacerbating rather than improving problems with navigation.

Ever wondere how the Sun could have been shining for 4.55 billion years, radiating immense amounts of energy into space? How does the Sun produce the energy that will keep it shining for another 5 billion years?