The atmosphere: Global commons to protect

One of the most important greenhouse gases is CO2, whose concentration in the atmosphere has increased from 280 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to 358ppmv in 1994, giving a general increase of over 27 per cent since pre-industrial times. This increase has been attributed largely to fossil fuel combustion. Significant increases have also been observed in atmospheric concentrations of the other greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxide and global tropospheric ozone. Concentrations of methane and nitrous oxide have, for example, grown by 145 per cent and 15 per cent respectively since pre-industrial times. Such increases have been linked to the rapid world population growth, which has resulted in increasing demands for energy, food, water, shelter and other basic needs. Computer models indicate that the continued accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could result in global climate change and global warming. As some uncertainties still exists in the model predictions, it may take a few more years to uniquely separate human-induced climate change signals from natural climate variability in global climate trends