"However, in the next 55 years the greatest threat to Sri Lanka will be not being from war, but from climate change. Sri Lanka is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and weather-related disasters have the potential to set back any gains made in agriculture, fisheries and even services such as tourism..."

This is taken from Margaret Gardner's article in the Guardian newspaper on 13^th November 2013.Today Global warming has become a big threat not only to Sri Lanka but to the whole world.  

As you may already know the temperature of the Earth's atmosphere and its oceans is gradually increasing and it also permanently changing the Earth's climate. And we refer it as global warming.  

You might wonder why you feel your summers are hotter than previous days. And why your winters were colder than early days. What is the reason behind robust increases of drenching storms and why Nepal had to face such a disasters series of earth quakes? The answer is global warming.

There are many reasons behind global warming.

According to climatehotmap.org global warming is primarily a problem of too much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere—which acts as a blanket, trapping heat and warming the planet. As we burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas for energy or cut down and burn forests to create pastures and plantations, carbon accumulates and overloads our atmosphere. Certain waste management and agricultural practices aggravate the problem by releasing other potent global warming gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide.

The CO2 we are producing today will be in our atmosphere for several years, up to many centuries. From all the heat trapping gases C02 does the most damage. If we continue releasing CO2 to our atmosphere it will cause irreversible damage. The amount of carbon we put in the atmosphere today won?t affect only to our climates but it will do immense damage to our future generation.

What are the consequences of  Global Warming?

Scientists have recorded 2015 was the hottest year it smashed the previous record which was set in 2014. Can you guess what year will again smash that record? If we don?t act today, all the coming years will be the hottest years.

• Let's start with droughts. The major droughts cost dollars from agricultural sector. It?s not only about the profit. The plants, crops are dying rapidly.

As in Navin Ramankutty, a professor of global food security and sustainability at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and colleagues research they have found a big effect on drought for crop. They have taken nearly 50 years of data about weather events that disastrously affected the people near where cereal crops are grown and compared it to over 50 years of cereal crop data collected for 177 countries. By chunking the data sets into the seven years surrounding an extreme weather event, Ramankutty and colleagues Corey Lesk and Pedram Rowhani have figured out how crops fared in the three years leading up to a disaster, the year it hit, and the three years that followed.

Imagine if there are happen to be many droughts over and over again what will happen to the food production in the world? And all the people would end up in starvation.

• There are many climate related disasters are happening as a result of warming of the world. Floods, storms, earth quacks, wildfires, and winter storms are few of them.

In the last year thousands of people died from these disasters and billions of dollars worth property has been damaged. Nepal earth quack is best example for this. It happened on April 2015 and killed over 8,000 people and injured more than 21,000.

• Record heat, melting ice, and rising seas are other best examples for the climate change.

Earth?s ice cap seems like permanent fixture from the space above. But unfortunately it is melting thanks to our burning of fossil fuels. According to most climate models our efforts to limit carbon dioxide emissions—starting with the steps agreed by climate conference COP21 in Paris on 2015—will not be enough to keep Earth from warming more than 2 degrees Celsius. To prevent even worse impacts than the loss of Arctic ice, by late in this century we'll have to not only shut down emissions, but find a way to clean up massive amounts of carbon dioxide that we've already put in the atmosphere.

• Some animals are facing threats because of the climate change.

Snow Leopards are one of these species.

Mongolia is among the countries most affected by global warming as COP21 in Paris 2015. More than a third of Mongolia's 2.6 million people are, nomadic or seminomadic herders, and their pasture lands are disappearing. So they are taking their animals to better pastures at higher elevations. And sheep and goats are eating grasses which earlier wild argali (blue) sheep and ibexes were fed. Since those wild animals were the main food source of Snow Leopards. Inevitably, the big cats are now preying on the domesticated animals. To protect their livelihoods herders are hunting Snow Leopards.

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) if climate change isn't slowed, more than a third of snow leopard territory might become unsuitable for the cats.

• Spreading diseases. Warm weather is increasing the number and range of ticks, midges, and mosquitoes–those that carry human disease, such as dengue fever.

In Sri Lanka thousands of people are dying from dengue fever per year.

These are only the few effects of global warming but there are tremendous amount of destruction happening right now due to climate change.

 What we can do to put a full stop to Global warming?

First of all we must significantly reduce the amount of heat-trapping emissions we are putting into the atmosphere.

As individuals we can reduce our personal carbon emissions. We can use renewable energy systems which make our environment cleaner and also less dependent on coal and other fossil fuels. We can use vehicle fuel efficiency and reduce the oil consumption.

According to the globalwarming-facts.info these are the things we can do put an end to global warming.

1. Replace a regular incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL)
2. Install a programmable thermostat which will automatically lower the heat or air conditioning at night and raise them again in the morning.
3. Clean or replace filters on your furnace and air conditioner. Cleaning dirty filters will save 350 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.
4. Choose energy efficient appliances when making new purchases.
5. Do not leave appliances on standby.
6. Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket. You?ll save 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide a year with this simple action.
7. If your fridge and freezer are next to the cooker or boiler it consumes much more energy. So move it.
8. Defrost old fridges and freezers regularly.
9. Cover your pots while cooking. Even better are pressure cookers and steamers: they can save around 70%
10. Use the washing machine or dishwasher only when they are full.
11. Use less hot water. You can use less hot water by installing a low flow shower head (350 pounds of carbon dioxide saved per year).
12. You can save 700 pounds of carbon dioxide when you air dry your clothes.
13. You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by recycling half of the waste your household generates.
14. Recycle your organic waste.
15. Choose products that come with little packaging and buy refills when you can.
16.  Reuse your shopping bag.
17.  Reduce waste. By taking your lunch in a reusable lunch box instead of a disposable one, you save the energy needed to produce new lunch boxes.
18. Plant a tree.
19. Buy locally grown and produced foods.
20. Switch to green power
21. Eat less meat. Methane is the second most significant greenhouse gas and cows are one of the greatest methane emitters. Their grassy diet and multiple stomachs cause them to produce methane, which they exhale with every breath.
22. Reduce the number of miles you drive by walking, biking, carpooling or taking mass transit wherever possible.
23. Sharing a ride with someone just 2 days a week will reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by 1,590 pounds a year.
24. Don?t leave an empty roof rack on your car. This can increase fuel consumption and CO2 emissions by up to 10% due to wind resistance and the extra weight –removing it is a better idea.
25. Keep your car tuned up.
26.  Drive carefully and do not waste fuel.
27.  Check your tires weekly to make sure they?re properly inflated.
28. When it is time for a new car, choose a more fuel efficient vehicle.
29.  Fly less.
30. Encourage your school or business to reduce emissions.
31. Protect and conserve forest worldwide.

 Once Chief Seattle, great Native American leader said that, "Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors we borrow it from our Children..."

 References:

http://globalwarming-facts.info/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

http://www.climatehotmap.org/

http://www.livescience.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/