Climate Change: The World View

Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize has increased the awareness of one of the most pressing issues of our time, global climate change. The growth in public awareness on the issue of global climate change has been nothing short of extraordinary. In two decades the issue has come from the obscurity of science journals to the headlines of major newspapers. In the coming years climate change alone will not be the only major environmental threat that we face on a global scale. Climate change is a major driver of global environmental change but it is also a part of a complex and intertwined ecosystem that rests in a delicate balance. Several strong interlinkages between climate change and other key environmental problems are likely to be the next-generation-issue. Through this photogallery, we bring you a glimpse of how countries around the world view this impending threat.

In two decades the issue of climate change has come from the obscurity of science journals to the headlines of major newspapers.

Several strong interlinkages between climate change and other key environmental problems are likely to be the next-generation-issue.

Here in this picture, schoolgirls (R) gather around "The People's Orb" (L), a shimmering 20cm silver sphere containing a 350 gigabyte mosaic of stories, voices, images and action collected from around the world to inspire action on climate change in Copenhagen.

The People's Orb will travel to Denmark to be presented to a representative of world leaders during a dedicated Earth Hour Copenhagen when the lights of the city will be turned off for one hour from 7pm on December 16. (AFP photo)

Morning commuters travel the 210 freeway between Los Angeles and cities to the east on December 1, 2009 near Pasadena, California. President Barack Obama will attend the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen next week with a vow to reduce US greenhouse gas emissions to about 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020, and 83 per cent by 2050.

Meanwhile, California, which has some of the toughest clean air laws after decades of fighting some of the worst smog in the nation, is in the final phase of building a cap-and-trade market to provide incentives to reduce greenhouse emissions. More than 60 world leaders are expected to take part in the climate negotiations in Copenhagen. (AFP photo)
So-called "melting glacier water" was poured on the ground by activists as they protest in front of the headquarters of the American Petroleum Institute during a demonstration against corporations to participate in the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference.

Mobilization for Climate Justice organized the march to call on solutions for climate change and to keep corporations out of the climate conference. (AFP image)
Activists protest during a march against corporations to participate in the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference. (AFP photo)

An activist holds a jar for carrying "melting glacier water" during a march to protest against corporations to participate in the upcoming Copenhagen Climate Conference. (AFP photo)
Members of the Avaaz movement demonstrate on November 30, 2009, outside the official residence of Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen, north of Copenhagen during the visit of Herman Van Rompuy, President elect of the European Union.

The prime minister and the EU president met to discuss the preparations of the upcoming COP15 climate summit next month in Copenhagen. (AFP photo)
This photo released on December 14, 2007 and made available on December 17 shows a gam of Minke whales pass icebergs in the Southern Ocean off the Australian Antarctic Territory.

The new glacial ice Wilkins Runway situated 70kms from the Australian research station of Casey will allow Australian scientists to greatly expand their studies on the effects climate change is having on Antarctica's fragile environment by providing 20-30 flights from Hobart each summer. (AFP photo)

A wind turbine can be seen in front of the lignite-fired power plant in Jaenschwalde, eastern Germany.

The German cabinet had on December 5, 2007 agreed to a package of measures designed to fight climate change, that it said was one of the most ambitious initiatives of its kind undertaken anywhere in the world. One of the key measures will see renewable energy contribute between 25 and 30 percent of the country's energy needs compared to the current level of 12 per cent. (AFP photo)
A rainbow forms over the Ulu Baram rainforest in the Miri interior, eastern Malaysian Borneo state of Sarawak. Wealthy countries and a US green group donated 160 million USD for a new climate-change project aimed at encouraging poor developing nations to conserve their tropical forests. The World Bank-led plan was launched in Bali amid negotiations over a new framework on climate change once Kyoto Protocol commitments to curb gas emissions end in 2012. (AFP photo)
This picture taken on November 25, 2009 shows chimneys emitting smoke in the city of Hegang in China's industrial northeast province of Heilongjiang. The EU said on November 30, 2009 that cataclysmic climate change cannot be averted without Chinese leadership, as the two sides wrapped up a summit with China defending its efforts against global warming. (AFP photo)

Smoke billows from several chimneys at a factory in Jilin, in north China's Jilin province on November 29, 2009. The EU said on November 30 cataclysmic climate change cannot be averted without Chinese leadership, as the two sides wrapped up a summit with China defending its efforts against global warming. (AFP photo)
A malnourished boy is portrayed at a feeding center on June 10, 2008 in Damota Pulassa village, southern Ethiopia. Ethiopia said the number of people in need of food aid had risen to 4.5 million from 2.2 million due to failed rains, as it issued a plea for international help. (AFP photo)
Smoking chimneys of a power plant are seen through a broken glass of a bus stop where several Greenpeace activists take their camp at one of the top platforms of powerplant chimney on December 2, 2008 in Patnow, some 80 kilometers east of city of Poznan.(AFP photo)
In this portrait taken on August 24, 2009, Suriya Begum, a slum dweller in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, holds her baby. The 18-year-old moved from the southern coast to Dhaka a few years ago in search of a better life because jobs are few and far between and fertile land is becoming scarce. Experts say the number of people moving to the city will balloon in the coming years because of climate change. (AFP photo)
Workers prepare to pile up the coal for processing at a mine yard in Huaibei, central China's Anhui province on November 24, 2009. China remains reliant on coal to feed its energy-hungry economy, experts said, even as it talks of its commitment to clean energy ahead of the key climate change talks in Copenhagen. (AFP photo)
View of a fake thermometer reading 40 Celsius degrees outside La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago, Chile, on November 24, 2009. Chilean government installed the five-meter high thermometer to raise citizens' consciousness about climate change and energy saving in the framework of "Chile needs people from another planet" campaign. (AFP photo)