LiveNeutral is committed to providing individuals the opportunity to reduce the threat of climate change. The average American driver contributes 11,500 pounds (over 5 metric tons) of climate changing emissions each year. By neutralizing your transportation-caused carbon dioxide emissions through LiveNeutral, you will be supporting projects that are reducing climate-changing emissions.
The term global warming refers to the rise of global temperatures caused by increased amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As the sun’s energy enters the Earth’s atmosphere, these greenhouse gases block heat reflected from the Earth’s surface, which would normally travel back into space. The result is an increase in global temperatures. As the amount of greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, the Earth’s surface becomes warmer.
There are many greenhouse gases and the most abundant is carbon dioxide, which accounts for approximately 85% of all greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is formed when fossil fuels, like gasoline or diesel are burned. The continued accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will result in a warmer atmosphere resulting in warmer winters, inundated coastal areas, droughts in arid areas, flooding in wet areas, lost habitat and species extinction, increased intensities of extreme weather events such as hurricanes, decreased productivity of agricultural land and more.
With the rising global use of fossil fuels comes an ever-increasing amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Though it can’t be seen, scientists observe elevated amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The effect of annual amounts of carbon dioxide emissions on total atmospheric amounts of carbon dioxide is cumulative. The earth’s natural cycles cannot process as much carbon dioxide as human activity is producing and scientists are observing corresponding increases in the average global temperature. Over the past 20 years, scientists have concluded that the increasing amount of carbon dioxide is the major contributor of rising global temperatures. In the last 15 years, the warmest 10 years of the century have been recorded. Over the past year, the Arctic ice cap is probably its smallest size in the last 100 years of record keeping. In recent years, the proportion of powerful hurricanes has doubled, from 1/6 to 1/3.
LiveNeutral purchases emissions credits through the Chicago Climate Exchange because of the demonstrated effectiveness of its members in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, CCX members are exceeding their emissions reduction targets. When LiveNeutral purchases your emissions credits, we are stimulating a consumer market and encouraging more entities to join emission reductions programs like the CCX.
The threat of global climate change can be reduced if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced globally and we all pay our climate dues.
Click here to learn more about how we calculate our emissions.
To read more about climate change visit the sites of these US and international organizations:
US Environmental Protection Agency
According to the US EPA Climate Change refers to any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation, or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer). Climate change may result from:
- natural factors, such as changes in the sun’s intensity or slow changes in the Earth’s orbit around the sun;
- natural processes within the climate system (e.g. changes in ocean circulation);
- human activities that change the atmosphere’s composition (e.g. through burning fossil fuels) and the land surface (e.g.
deforestation, reforestation, urbanization, desertification, etc.)
Click here to visit the EPA website for more information.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been established by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report “Climate Change 2007”, also referred to as AR4. The reports by the three Working Groups provide a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change. The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas.
Click here to visit the IPCC website for more information.
European Union
EU has developed a top 10 Questions & Answers on Climate Change
According to the European Commission, climate change is one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet.
Click here to visit the EU website for more information.
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