Global Warming and Climate Change

The atmosphere surrounding our planet acts as a protective blanket for all life on earth. It provides carbon dioxide (CO2) for plant photosynthesis and oxygen (O2) for animal and human respiration. It also protects us from the effects of harmful cosmic rays and physical impacts of meteors from out space by absorbing most of these rays and disintegrating meteors by friction with air.

Historically, the climate has always dictated the way people live: housing, clothing, diet, agricultural practices, and some even believe that people's temperament is determined by the climate. In turn, the climate is regulated by many factors: the radiation and angle of the sun, the rotation of the earth, the geographical coordinates, the chemical composition of air masses, the proximity and size of the oceans, the regional topography etc. In particularly, these factors control air temperature and the amount and distribution of rainfall, which are the two most important aspects of the climate for a particular region. Changes in these factors will certainly lead to a change in global climate. This will subsequently cause an impact on the way we live.

For most of human history, changes in the earth's climate have resulted from natural causes over hundreds or even thousands of years. But since the industrial revolution over 200 years ago, human activities have come to affect the climate in serious and immediate ways - the increasing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) into the atmosphere are intensifying a natural phenomenon called greenhouse effect. This results in long-term rising of the average temperature of the earth, which is called global warming.

the Ministry of Environment, (2010),  Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism, Phnom Penh