The Three Essential Elements for Life

The three essential elements for life that all living creatures need to survive are air, water and food, and the three are interrelated. Air has been available for all to breathe since the beginning of evolution. However, the quality of air that we breathe began to deteriorate since the beginning of the industrial revolution in Europe. The quality of air in our global environment began to deteriorate at a rapid rate with the advancement of industrialization and modernization, which require the increase in the production of energy. More coal burning as well as fossil energy is used. For example, the U.S., as of 2009, still relies on coal burning for the production of more than 50% of its energy. Other countries like China and India are burning more coal than the U.S. France is the only country that relies on nuclear plants to produce nearly 75% of its energy needs.

This led to more emissions of carbon dioxide, which began to have a negative impact, not only on the quality of the air we breathe, but also on the global temperatures, which have been increasing due to the emission of more carbon dioxide. This has begun to impact the North Pole. More ice is melting, and according to scientific projection, in 40-50 years he Mediterranean Sea water levels will increase by 1 - 1.2 m. Flooding will occur in many low lands especially in the Nile Delta of Egypt and other North African seashore areas.

In a previous post I referred to the projected possibility of flooding in Egypt's Delta Region. Also, the increase in global temperatures has begun to have a negative impact on certain geographical locations worldwide. The Middle East and North African areas have begun to experience less rainfall, more climate dryness and lower food productivity as a result of long durations of drought. The global environmental changes have been an international topic of concern by international organizations for the last few decades. Recently, the United Nations held its annual international environmental meeting in Cancun, Mexico. 190 nations met during the past two weeks (November - December 2010).

The conference participants concluded the meeting change, by agreeing on posing a modest new plan to combat climate, including a new "Green Climate Fund" to help poor nations. It also reaffirms the goal to raise an annual $100 billion in aid for poor countries by 2020. However, the new agreement does not include a commitment to extend "KYOTO" beyond 2012. (nytimes.com, 12/11/10). Last year, the U.N.'s climate summit in Copenhagen fell short of creating a treaty to slow down the emission of CO2 which is contributing to droughts, storms, heat waves and rising sea levels, all of which scientists claim are caused by global warming. The Cancun conference will simply firm up non-binding deals from Copenhagen, which were endorsed by only 140 nations. Still there will be more work to be done on the agreement that will be dealt with to seal the deal during the next U.N. meeting on climate change in South African in 2011.

Financial support from highly industrial nations who are the major contributors to global climate changes is very important to help developing nations who are dealing with the consequences of such problems. It is unfortunate that so far, the regions most negatively affected by climate change are relatively poor states that lack the financial support and technological know-how to deal with the consequences of climate change.