Climate Change | Allianz Knowledge

A view of mountain slopes and waterfalls in Hawaii / Credits: Reuters

Greenpeace activists stage a protest against deforestation near a Brazil nut tree in the Amazon ... / Credits: Reuters

A view of the Dubai skyline at night, including the world's tallest building the Burj Khalifa. / Credits: Reuters

Environment Record CO2 highs: back to the climate future more
Environment Ecocide: a crime against peace more
Environment Green short cut: abolish fossil fuel subsidies more

Animation / Credits: Allianz

Environment Climate tipping points See the 12 regions of earth that will be most affected by climate change.
more

Futtsu Thermal Power Station, east of Tokyo: Generating power by burning fossil fuels like natural gas, oil, and coal produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any other human activity.

Virgin Amazon rainforest borders an area of jungle destroyed to make way for farms in Brazil. Deforestation and forest degradation are responsible for at least 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.

Gridlock on the road into Beijing. Between 600 and 700 million cars, trucks, and buses worldwide produce about about 13 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

An oil platform stands in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Extracting and refining oil and natural gas requires huge amounts of energy while it also releases climate-warming methane gas from underground into the air.

Bags containing ammonium nitrate fertilizer are stored in a warehouse in Sydney. Modern agriculture relies heavily on fertilizers and pesticides, which are manufactured from crude oil and natural gas and which release nitrous oxide into the air, contributing to global warming.

A cow in Argentina has its methane emissions collected in a plastic tank. Argentine scientists say cows could be generating thirty percent of Argentina’s greenhouse gas emissions.

A laborer walks over newly made pipes at a cement plant in Yingtan, China. There is huge demand for cement thanks to a global construction boom. Cement production is very energy intensive, requiring first the quarrying of limestone and then processing of that limestone at very high temperatures.

A jet airliner leaves condensation trails. Estimations say that aircraft emissions of water vapor, nitrous oxides, aerosols and CO2 could be 2 to 4 times stronger than emissions of CO2 alone.

Picture of a steel factory. The iron and steel industry has one of the largest carbon footprints of any single industrial sector.

A man scavenges for waste to recycle at a garbage dump in Linfen, China. Landfill sites like this produce greenhouse gases because rotting organic waste emits methane.

Environment Ten sources of greenhouse gases Discover ten of the most important sources of man-made greenhouses gases. more

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A UN global warming scenario predicts temparature increases of up to six or seven degress Celsius. / Credits: Reuters

Environment What is global warming? Global warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. ... more
Environment Global warming - What role does water vapor really play? more
Environment A new threat to the Arctic ozone more

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lava flows into the ocean

A map of gondwana

A boy beside a model dinosaur.

Smoking crater of a volcano.

A polar ice sheet

The earth from space

field of wildflowers

A satellite image of the baltic sea in winter

The colisseum in Rome

The sun rising.

Environment Earth's climate history in pictures Climate change on earth isn't man-made only. Here are the various stages of the planet's ... more

tree rings

A view of an ice sample taken from 2,874 meters deep

Great Barrier Reef Australia

Cave with stalagmites

sediment layers

pollen and spores in sediment

Environment Nature’s climate archives: Corals, wood and pollen Learn more about how tree rings, corals and even pollen fossils reveal global temperature ... more

In July 2009, the Australian city of Bundanoon voted to rid the town of bottled water

California has introduced a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) which requires fuel suppliers to reduce greenhouse gases

India’s first housing complex exclusively supplied with solar energy

A view of the energy efficient Western Harbour district in Malmö, Sweden

The European Union decided to ban conventional lightbulbs in favour of their energy efficient brothers

In Vauban, a suburb to the German city of Freiburg, the cyclist is king

Environment Promoting action on climate change Some countries, cities or communities have come up with clever plans to reduce their ... more

Kyoto Emissions Targets / Credits: Reuters/Allianz

Environment: Animation Kyoto emissions targets See what progress industrialized countries have made towards their Kyoto ... more

A worker checks a gas pipeline in an Indonesian landfill site

Farm manager Hugo Garcia takes water samples near a bio-digester

A woman winnows grain near a gas flare in Nigeria.

A long distance pipeline in Alaska

A Russian coal miner walks towards the entrance of a mine.

A worker at a Thai wastewater treatment plant

A rice farmer and her child in a paddy field

A woman covers her mouth while walking behind a bus belching exhaust fumes

A man on a bicycle protests against off-road vehicles

An Afghan worker patches up a smoking brick kiln

Modern and traditional coking ovens

A Chinese farmer burns agricultural waste

An Eritrean woman uses her new fuel efficient mogogo stove

A prison warden watches prisoners work on biogas stoves in Rwanda

Environment Easy ways to protect climate, health and crops Scientists have identified 14 simple, inexpensive ways to reduce global warming, slash ... more

A wind turbine is seen near a gate of the ancient city of Wushu in Diaobingshan, Liaoning province. ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interveiw Durban review: Economic revival means green growth Christoph Bals, policy director of environmental NGO Germanwatch, returned from ... more

Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world, is part of the Himalayan mountain range. Glaciers in ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Glaciergate: A pyrrhic victory for climate skeptics Despite a headline-grabbing scientific error, the fact is that the Himalyan ... more

Environment: Interview Taking on climate change myths and skeptics Stefan Rahmstorf, one of the world's best known climate scientists, tackles the ... more

Solar activity is shown in a 2003 NASA image.

An Indian man cycles beside a canal.

Water used to fight a fire encases a building in ice.

Steam rises from the Rio Blanco river after Chile's Chaiten volcano erupted.

A man poses next to a dinosaur model .

Balloons with Carbon dioxide symbols.

A volcano erupting in Iceland.

A graphic shows the Earth's interior.

Houses in the town of Ilulissat in western Greenland.

A foraging Emperor penguin on snow-covered sea ice.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore speaks with Bono.

A Pakistani farmer harvests wheat.

Environment Climate science myths Here are some of the most widespread myths about climate science and arguments why ... more

A Buddhist monk walks in a flooded street in central Bangkok. / Credits: Reuters

The photo shows farmers planting grass to stabilize sand dunes on the edge of the Mu Us Desert in Lingwu, northwest China.

University students plant mangrove trees along the Jakarta bay

Heat wave hits Chicago in July 2011

A rice variety submerged in salt water is being developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Laguna province south of Manila

A man collects rainwater during a thunderstorm in Havana

Smart irrigation to conserve water

The picture shows a water desalination plant built offshore Argentina's Patagonian village of Puerto Piramides.

The satellite image shows the Dutch region of Zeeland. Dikes are clearly visible.

The image shows one of the first storm surge barrier erected in Zeeland shortly after the storm disaster in 1953.

The picture shows an artist's rendition of a study on whether an artificial island in the shape of a tulip could help protect the most vulnerable parts of the Dutch coastline.

This aerial view shows an abandoned village in the desert of North Darfur, Sudan in November 2004.

Environment How to adapt to climate change See how we can cope with droughts, desertification, and rising sea levels. more

Can you be a climate leader? Try your green management skills. / Credits: Allianz/WWF

Environment: Climate Game CEO2: Are you a green leader? Can businesses fight global warming and remain profitable? Find out in CEO2, a ... more

Image of a space shade.

Wind-powered yachts that could spray seawater droplets into the air to produce more clouds.

he photo shows a research team aboard the Australian research vessel, Aurora Australis, examining the effects of iron on phytoplankton growth in the Southern Ocean in 2001.

The picture shows the eruption of a volcano, belching out sulfur dioxide.

Illustration of plastic tubes in the ocean, which would use wave motion and a one-way valve to push deep water through the tubes to the surface, bringing up essential nutrients to stimulate blooms of tiny marine plants.

The "air capture" devices illustrated here were conceived by Columbia University researcher Klaus Lackner and Global Research Technologies LLC.

Three hands with earth, the hand on the left is holding "biochar," a biomass-derived black carbon, which is seen as a promising option to enrich agricultural soils (right) and capture carbon dioxide.

Cull the Camels

White Roofing

Vertical Farming

Environment Ten weird and wacky solutions to global warming Does the Earth need sunglasses? Take a look at some amazing solutions proposed to halt ... more

Protestors dressed in CO2 molecule costumes, demonstrate in Essen, Germany, as part of the ... / Credits: Reuters

Greenhouse gases trap some of the sun's energy within our atmosphere and increase the temperature ... / Credits: Shutterstock

Environment What is the greenhouse effect? Our atmosphere is just a thin layer of gas, but it and its greenhouse effect ... more

Thousands of years ago the African monsoon shifted north and the Sahara supported flourishing ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Green Sahara: How climate change transformed the desert Between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago fishermen thrived in the Sahara, ... more

Not the most environmentally-friendly family arrangement, according to Population Matters, which ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Family planning as climate change solution As solutions to climate change go, it doesn’t get much simpler or more ... more

A Spanish tourist crosses a bridge in Tenorio Volcano National Park in Costa Rica. According to a ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview How Costa Rica’s eco-economy saved its forests Costa Rica leads the world in eco-friendly living. The secret to success, says ... more

An aerial view of a natural lake fed by a spring in the Amazon River basin near Manaus. / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Amazon rescue: How Brazil cut deforestation Ane Alencar, research coordinator at the Amazon Environmental Research ... more

The REDD forest protection project does not only prevent deforestation but also creates new job ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Code REDD for environmental protection Leading up to the Rio+20 sustainable development conference Allianz partner ... more

An aerial view shows Amazon forest burning in Mato Grosso state, Brazil in 2005. / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Amazon: From carbon sink to smokestack? Dr. Simon Lewis, forest expert at Leeds University, warns that we are “playing ... more

According to scientists from the U.S. Agriculture Department's Forest Service, tropical mangrove ... / Credits: Reuters

Indians from the Xingu National Park in Brazil inspect smoldering remains after trees were cleared and burned to make way for farming near their reserve.

Workers harvest soybeans in Nova Mutum, Mato Grosso state in western Brazil. Brazil now supplies some 34 percent of global soya exports, many of which go into making animal feed.

Cattle graze amid the remains of a burned-out forest outside of Boa Vista, northern Brazil. Rising living standards have increased local and global demand for meat.

A truck drives through a palm oil plantation in Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province. Over the past decade, the area planted with oil palm in Indonesia has almost tripled.

Workers load shrimps onto a truck at a shrimp farm west of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Commercial farmers are clearing and draining mangrove forests—which shelter coasts from storms and sustain many unique species—to make way for shrimp farms.

Logging, especially illegal logging, is a major cause of deforestation. In Brazil and Indonesia some 80 to 90 percent of timber extraction is deemed illegal.

A giant opencast gold mine dominates the landscape in Indonesia's rainforest Papua province. Many forested areas are rich in minerals and therefore vulnerable to deforestation.

The construction of the Interoceanic Highway connecting Peru and Brazil cuts a swathe through the Amazon jungle. Road construction is the infrastructure development that contributes most to deforestation.

Charcoal bags stacked beside a traditional charcoal factory in the Ivory Coast. Charcoal production as a driver of deforestation primarily occurs in the forests of sub-Saharan Africa.

Boys gather firewood in Guinea. One third of the world’s population uses biomass fuels, mainly firewood, to cook and to heat their homes.

Environment Ten causes of deforestation Ten key causes of deforestation and forest degradation. more

September 2007 brought record sea ice melt in the Arctic. Sea ice extent was 38 percent below ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview What will the climate be like in 2100? Stanford University climatologist Stephen Schneider discusses what we know and ... more

Animation / Credits: Allianz

Environment: Animation Explore the effects of climate change This is how climate change could affect our environment and how we can ... more

On the right: An actual prototype of a branch of fibers which can absorb carbon dioxide from the ... / Credits: Reuters/Lackner

Environment: Interview Carbon capture: Artificial trees suck CO2 from air Fewer natural trees weakens Earth's defense against CO2. Geophysicist Klaus ... more

The world's marine animals are threatened by humanity's impacts on the oceans. / Credits: Reuters

Environment Climate change and overfishing top threats to oceans The world’s oceans, two thirds of the planet’s surface, are in rapid decline. ... more

The effects of coral bleaching off the coast of Belize / Credits: Reuters

Environment The impact of climate change on our oceans As increased CO2 turns the oceans more acidic, climate scientists realize that ... more

A giant green turtle rests on a coral reef near Borneo. Coral reefs are sensitive to increasing ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Biodiversity and climate change: The critical link Instead of preserving Earth’s biodiversity, human actions are advancing its ... more

Eric Wolff, British Antarctic Survey: "We all take for granted that CO2 and methane levels have ... / Credits: British Antarctic Survey

Environment: Interview Ice cores: A window into climate history Eric Wolff, leader of the British Antarctic Survey’s Chemistry and Past Climate ... more

Arctic meltdown

Satellites show sea ice decline.

Satellite picture shows the sea ice extend in the Arctic at an all-time low, in September 2007.

The graph shows the average sea ice extent, comparing data from 2007, 2005, and 1979-2000.

Arctic Sea Ice Extent 2003 to 2011

The map indicates that the world’s largest island is covered by a massive ice sheet with an average thickness of 2.3 kilometers (1.6 miles).

Sunlight shines just after midnight on a fjord near the Norwegian Arctic town of Longyearbyen, on the Svalbard archipelago.

Three polar bears on the Beaufort Sea coast in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Thermokarst lakes appear on thawing permafrost soil in northeast Siberia in August 2007.

Oil from a pipeline leaks into wetlands close to the Arctic Circle in northern Russia.

The graphic shows that without its ice, the North Pole would just be a huge ocean framed by Russia, Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Norway.

Satellite picture shows that the loss of summer ice in the waters north of Canada has made the famous Northwest Passage passable.

Environment Global warming and the Arctic meltdown Arctic ice is melting faster than ever. Take a look at how far the ice is melting and ... more

Heinz Wanner: "We might still be living in the Little Ice Age if it wasn’t for anthropogenic ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview The impact of the Gulf Stream on Europe's climate If the Gulf Stream stops, Europe freezes? It's not that simple, says Heinz ... more

A model of giant fish made with plastic bottles is exhibited at Botafogo beach in Rio de Janeiro, ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment Breaking the rules of growth The UN Rio+20 conference on sustainable development seeks to progress beyond ... more

Wolfgang Ischinger, Global Head of Government Relations, Allianz, on the importance of ... / Credits: Sarasumie

Environment: Video Road to Rio +20: Climate change and global security Wolfgang Ischinger, Global Head of Government Relations at Allianz, explains ... more

Customers shop in a supermarket in Hanoi, Vietnam. A sustainable development strategie also demands ... / Credits: Reuters

Environment: Interview Road to Rio+20: Rethink consumer culture Katrin Göring-Eckhardt, vice president of the German parliament talks about her ... more