Business Fit Magazine January 2019 Issue 1 | Page 9

The Amazonian Project is a non-governmental
nonprofit organisation dedicated to the creation,
development and implementation of programs
aimed at the protection and conservation of the
environment, especially those which defend the
Amazon rainforest, its ecological balance, the
welfare of its people and the preservation of its rich
artistic and technological knowledge.
Our values at the Amazonian Project are:
Respect for Nature - "What we build today,
we will live tomorrow."
Equal Opportunity - respecting individuals.
Commitment and Fraternity - based on
the sense of unity and belonging to a global
society.
Justice - in a world where everyone can use
their potential regardless of gender, race,
nationality or sexual orientation.
Our programs include: Indigenous Culture and
Art - Exhibitions, Vanishing Art, Indian Musical
Training Centres (CFMI) and Indigenous
Culture and Art - Portraits Photographic
Exhibition Yanomami. We also have some pilot
projects such as Sustainable Development and
Environmental Protection and an educational
campaign which aims to preserve Indigenous
knowledge and cultures.
Here we discuss one of the main threats to our
environment, Global Warming.
Global warming refers to an unequivocal and
continuing rise in the average temperature of
Earth’s climate system. Since 1971, 90% of the
warming has occurred in the oceans. Despite
the oceans’ dominant role in energy storage,
the term “global warming” is also used to refer
to increases in average temperature of the
air and sea at Earth’s surface. Since the early
20th century, the global air and sea surface
temperature has increased about 0.8 °C, with
about two-thirds of the increase occurring since
1980. Each of the last three decades has been
successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than
any preceding decade since 1850. Scientific
understanding of the cause of global warming
has been increasing. It has been reported that
most of global warming was being caused
by increasing concentrations of greenhouse
gases produced by human activities. In 2010
that was recognised by the national science
academies of all major industrialised nations.
The largest driver of global warming is carbon
dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion,
cement production and land use changes
such as deforestation. Human influence has
been detected in warming of the atmosphere
and the ocean, in changes in the global water
cycle, in reductions in snow and ice, in global
mean sea level rise, and in changes in some
climate extremes. Future climate change and
associated impacts will vary from region to
region around the globe. The effects of an
increase in global temperature include a rise
in sea levels, and a change in the amount and
pattern of precipitation, as well as a probable
expansion of subtropical deserts. Warming
is expected to be strongest in the Arctic, with
the continuing retreat of glaciers, permafrost,
and sea ice. Other likely effects of the warming
include more frequent extreme weather
events including heat waves, droughts and
heavy rainfall; ocean acidification; and species
extinctions due to shifting temperature
regimes. Effects significant to humans include
the threat to food security from decreasing
crop yields and the loss of habitat from
inundation.
Future climate change is expected to
particularly
affect
certain
ecosystems,
including tundra, mangroves, and coral reefs.
It is expected that most ecosystems will be
affected by higher atmospheric CO2 levels,
combined with higher global temperatures.
Overall, it is expected that climate change will
result in the extinction of many species and
reduced diversity of ecosystems.
Climate change could result in global, large-
scale changes in natural and social systems.
Two examples are ocean acidification caused
by increased atmospheric concentrations of
carbon dioxide, and the long-term melting of
ice sheets, which contributes to sea level rise.
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