Subject: RE: Greenhouse effect

Dear Alex Mora,

There are sveral hundered WWW pages from different organisations that all answer your questions: Some good starting points (all URLs are examples and not necessarily the very best are included - its just what I found quickly on the net):

• UNITED NATIONS (long and sometimes difficult to read)
• State of the Environment Norway
• U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP)
• Greenpeace
• Environmental Defense Fund - a private funded organization in the USA
• American Geophysical Union

There are natural sources and man made sources of greenhouse gases. The most important are: Water (vapour) (H2O), Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Dinitrogenoxide (N2O), Ozone (O3), Chlorofluorocarbons

• man made greenhouse gases
• the role of greenhouse gases
• NASA information on greenhouse effect

Yes - but it is quite impossible to predict the change for a specific country. Some countries might get more rain, others less, some countries will get warmer, others even cooler. Clear is, that the overall average temperature of the earth already has increased and will increase.

• how much will climate change?
• will it lead to more extreme weather conditions or not

Ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect are two distinct effects but quite a number of chemicals that cause ozone depletion are also involved in the greenhouse effect. Today the industry has reduced output of Chlorofluorocarbons that destroy the ozone layer and replaced them by hydrofluorocarbons(HFCs). HFCs pose no direct threat to the ozone layer, but are very powerful global warming gases.

• ozone depletion
• Greenpeace comments on HFCs

Expected consequences of increased greenhouse effect are:

  Gradual global warming 
  Climatic changes, with impacts on wind patterns and precipitation. 
  Some areas are expected to receive more rain while other areas will 
  become drier. 
  Rising sea level 
  Changing ecosystems and production patterns 

• effects on arctis
• The Impacts of Global Warming
• Potential health effects of climatic change

Get informed (you made a good start!)
Join an environmental group
Act according to what is good - not what is just easy

20 Simple Steps to Reduce Global Warming
research excursions with Earthwatch

And here finally some important documents about what the goverments decided to do:

• UNITED NATIONS Framework Convention on Climate Change
• UNITED NATIONS "Berlin Mandate"

I hope this helps.
God bless you
Jurgen