Manik: B09721065: Global Warming
Manik: B09721065: Global Warming
Manik: B09721065: Global Warming
Name: Manik S-id: B09721065 Global Warming:Global Warming is defined as the increase of the average temperature on Earth. As the Earth is getting hotter, disasters like hurricanes, droughts and floods are getting more frequent. Over the last 100 years, the average temperature of the air near the Earths surface has risen a little less than 1 Celsius (0.74 0.18C, or 1.3 0.32 Fahrenheit). Does not seem all that much? It is responsible for the conspicuous increase in storms, floods and raging forest fires we have seen in the last ten years, though, say scientists. Their data show that an increase of one degree Celsius makes the Earth warmer now than it has been for at least a thousand years. Out of the 20 warmest years on record, 19 have occurred since 1980. The three hottest years ever observed have all occurred in the last ten years, even. Earth should be in cool-down-period:But it is not only about how much the Earth is warming, it is also about how fast it is warming. There have always been natural climate changes Ice Ages and the warm intermediate times between them but those evolved over periods of 50,000 to 100,000 years. A temperature rise as fast as the one we have seen over the last 30 years has never happened before, as far as scientists can ascertain. Moreover, normally the Earth should now be in a cool-down-period, according to natural effects like solar cycles and volcano activity, not in a heating-up phase. What is more, climate change won t be a smooth transition to a warmer world, warns the Tipping Points Report by Allianz and WWF. Twelve regions around the world will be especially affected by abrupt changes, among them the North Pole, the Amazon rainforest, and California. All these facts lead scientists to infer that the global warming we now experience is not a natural occurrence and that it is not brought on by natural causes. Man is responsible, they say. What did we do? Read more about the man-made causes and impacts of global warming in the following articles.
Facts and Predictions:The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered a huge blow to global warming skeptics. Leading climate scientists are now 90 percent sure that human activity is heating up
the planet. They present various scenarios that show where global warming could take us by the end of the century. The choice is ours.
Findings also show that the atmosphere now holds more water vapor, one of the driving forces of tropical storms and floods. Since the 1960, Westerly winds have gained in strength all over the planet. The Atlantic was particularly affected by more frequent and severe tropical cyclones, a phenomenon in line with rising surface water temperatures. The report says that there is a chance of six out of ten that recent severe storms were boosted by global warming. Arctic temperatures have increased twice as fast as global average temperatures. Summer ice in the Arctic Ocean is decreasing by 7.4 percent per decade. By the end of the century, the Arctic might well be ice-free in summer. Meanwhile permafrost is on the retreat. Since 1900, the seasonally frozen ground in the Northern Hemisphere has shrunken by some 7 percent. This has freed large amounts of methane, another potent greenhouse gas. To which extent such side-effects amplify ongoing global warming is not yet properly understood. The IPCC s scenarios, therefore, do not account for eventual runaway effects that would speed up global warming. Precipitation patterns, too, changed over the last century. There is significantly more rain in the eastern parts of North and South America, northern Europe and northern and central Asia. On the other hand, dry spells are more frequent in the Sahel, the Mediterranean, southern Africa and parts of southern Asia.
The IPCC scenarios:The world s leading scientists have put together data and expertise available and devised seven climate scenarios for the 21st century. It all depends they say on the level of demographic and economic development, and how serious we are about the fight against global warming. Level 2000:- If we manage to stabilize our greenhouse gas emissions to the levels attained in the year 2000, we will still feel the heat, but the increase will be less than a degree over the next hundred years. Unfortunately, this option is not even considered a real scenario but rather a benchmark to compare with more realistic models.
Global Service Economy:Scenario B1 presents the most optimistic outlook: by mid-century, global population will hit a peak and decline thereafter. Rapid economic changes will bring about a service and information economy based on clean and efficient technologies. The international community will unite around policy solutions such as the Kyoto Protocol - for the reduction of greenhouse gases. While all this sounds promising, global warming will still occur, albeit not beyond a range of 1.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius. Sea level rise between 18 and 38 centimeters until the end of the century.
Population Growth:Scenario B2 is less rosy: global population will constantly grow while climate change mitigation efforts have a regional focus. This translates into a temperature rise of some 1.4 to 3.8 degree Celsius. Sea levels increase some 20 to 40 centimeters by 2100.
Rapid Economic Growth:- The A1 scenario has been split up in three sub-divisions. Each of them is based on rapidly growing economies and a growing number of people, albeit populations will decline towards the second half of the century. A1FI represents business-as-usual - a world that still runs on coal and gas. It is here that predictions are most shocking: temperature gains of some 2.4 to 6.4 degrees are within reach. The sea would rise some 26 to 50 centimeters until the end of the century flooding large coastal cities and numerous islands. Finally, A1T is a world that has lived through a third industrial revolution - a widespread conversion to green energy sources. It is similar to B1 in the sense that temperatures and oceans will rise, but to an extent that experts such as Hans Joachim Schellnhuber call manageable". The sun is the Earth s primary energy source, a burning star so hot that we can feel its heat from over 150 million kilometers away. Its rays enter our atmosphere and shower upon on our planet. About one third of this solar energy is reflected back into the universe by shimmering glaciers, water and other bright surfaces. Two thirds, however, are absorbed by the Earth, thus warming land, oceans, and atmosphere. Much of this heat radiates back out into space, but some of it is stored in the atmosphere. This process is called the greenhouse effect. Without it, the Earth s average temperature would be a chilling -18 degrees Celsius, even despite the sun s constant energy supply. In a world like this, life on Earth would probably have never emerged from the sea. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, however, heat emitted from the Earth is trapped in the atmosphere, providing us with a comfortable average temperature of 14 degrees.way more complicated than in a real greenhouse. Like a radiator in space :Only about half of all solar energy that reaches the Earth is infrared radiation and causes immediate warming when passing the atmosphere. The other half is of a higher frequency, and only translates into heat once it hits Earth and is later reflected back into space as waves of infrared radiation. This transformation of solar radiation in to infrared radiation is crucial, because infrared radiation can be absorbed by the atmosphere. So, on a cold and clear night for example, parts of this infrared radiation that would normally dissipate into space get caught up in the Earth s atmosphere. And like a radiator in the middle of a room, our atmosphere radiates this heat into all directions. Parts of this heat are finally sent out in the frozen nothingness of space, parts of it are sent back to Earth where they step up global temperatures. Just how much warmer it gets down here depends on how much energy is absorbed up there and this, in turn, depends on the atmosphere s composition.
Nitrogen, oxygen, and argon make up 98 percent of the Earth s atmosphere. But they do not absorb significant amounts of infrared radiation, and thus do not contribute to the greenhouse effect. It is the more exotic components like water vapour, carbon dioxide, ozone, methane, nitrous oxide, and chlorofluorocarbons that absorb heat and thus increase atmospheric temperatures. Studies indicate that until some 2.7 billion years ago, there was so much carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane in our atmosphere that average temperatures on Earth were as high as 70 degrees. But bacteria and plants slowly turned CO2 into oxygen and the concentration of CO2 in our current atmosphere dropped to just about 0.038 percent or 383 parts per million (ppm), a unit of measurement used for very low concentrations of gases that has become a kind of currency in climate change debates.
Green Marketing and Ethical Issues:INTRODUCTION:The marketer need to know about what is the relevance of Social Marketing in order to protect the environment and to improve the quality of life and are concerned with issues that include conservation of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, protecting endangered species, and control of land use. Many companies are finding that consumers are willing to pay more for a green product. The last three decades have seen a progressive increase in worldwide environmental consciousness. This has been driven by a number of factors from increased media coverage to rising evidence of environmental problems such as the depletion of the ozone layer, acidification of rivers and forest degradation, global warming, the rise of pressure group activity, tougher legislation and major industrial disasters. Concern has moved from the local scale to a national and increasingly global scale. The rate of environmental degradation has intensified. The nineteenth century brought the first large scale pollution as companies geared themselves to produce goods as fast as possible, with virtual disregard for human or environmental well-being. Nations battled for industrial supremacy using raw materials and creating pollution at a staggering rate. As countries became economically stronger, competition also grew. More efficient production methods were employed, and few companies, if any, gave a thought to the impact they were having on their surroundings. With the increase in water pollution from the chemical works, and air pollution from the iron and steel industry, towns and cities began to pay the price for high industrial productivity. Ass the 1980s progressed; it became increasingly clear that, although the starkest predictions of resource depletion and population explosion had failed to materialize, all was far from well with the planet. A number of published analyses of the environment showed that according to a wide range of indicators, the environment was coming under increasing stress. Concern among consumers and the electorate began to mount, with the inevitable consequence being that environmental issues moved from the fringes to the center of the business and political agenda. The environment s role in business is profoundly obvious, but easy to overlook. It provides every business with its inputs, and a destination for all its outputs. It also provides the business with the
physical space within which its operations occur. For businesses dealing directly with environmental resources, such as agriculture, tourism or oil, the importance of the physical environment has always been apparent. Society in its present form and on its current trajectory of development, however, cannot be sustained indefinitely. The physical environment has limited resources and limited capacity to absorb pollution and waste. The underlying cause of society s current unsustainability relates to the way in which economics and technology have come to dominate our thinking about business and the environment. Conventional marketing within industry is very much a product of this techno-economic perspective. This has created a grey culture which is not sustainable and is therefore terminal. To transform this into a green sustainable culture, there is a need to balance consideration of the economic and technical impacts and aspects of businesses with understanding of their social and physical implications. The 3 r of environment:-
Green marketing takes account of the wider relationship of the organization and its products to the surroundings. It is about a more aware, open, targeted and sensitive approach that integrates the strategic link between the company, the environment, and marketing, rather than being primarily concerned with tactical communications opportunities. The prime emphasis is on, developing relationships and satisfying separate Stakeholders needs in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. The key stakeholders are customers, investors, parent company, directors, employees, the community, legislators, pressure groups, suppliers, and the media Green marketing differs from its societal and an ecological predecessor in it s intertwining of ecological and social concerns, in the breadth of the ecological agenda that it tackles, and in its potential application across all types and sectors of business. Green marketing goes beyond societal marketing in four key ways: It is an open-ended rather than a long-term perspective.:It focuses more strongly on the natural environment. It treats the environment as something which has an intrinsic value over and above its usefulness to society. It focuses on global concerns rather than those of particular societies. The key elements of green marketing can be summarized as under:A balanced approach to the social, technological, economic and physical aspects of businesses and societies. An emphasis on long term sustainable qualitative development rather than short-term unsustainable quantitative growth. A holistic approach aimed at reversing the educationalists and fragmented approach of previous business theory and practice. A consideration of consumers as real human beings rather than as hypothetical rational economic entities. An emphasis on meeting the genuine needs of consumers, rather than on stimulating superficial desires. Recognition that consumers and society have multiple and sometimes conflicting wants and needs. A view of the company and all its activities as part of the product that is consumed. A recognition that the large scale long distance nature of the current economy is not sustainable, and that in the future small and local will be beautiful.
Embracing the concept of eco-performance which incorporates the non-market outputs of the company, with performance of the product during and after use and the environmental impact of companies which contribute to the creation and marketing of the product elsewhere in the supply chain. The pursuit of added socio-environmental value as well as added techno-economic value.
Green Marketing:Meaning:Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in it or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way. The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product - an assumption that, in my opinion, has not been proven conclusively. While green marketing is growing greatly as increasing numbers of consumers are willing to back their environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can be dangerous. The public tends to be skeptical of green claims to begin with and companies can seriously damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is discovered to be false or contradicted by a company's other products or practices. Presenting a product or service as green when it's not is called green washing.
Definition:According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing. The legal implications of marketing claims call for caution. Misleading or overstated claims can lead to regulatory or civil challenges. In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission provides some guidance on environmental marketing claims.
Show potential customers that you follow green business practices and you could reap more green on your bottom line. Green Marketing isn't just a catchphrase; it's a marketing strategy that can help you get more customers and make more money. But only if you do it right. For green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, and give them the opportunity to participate. 1) Being genuine means that a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that's environmentally friendly. Both these conditions have to be met for your business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that will allow a green marketing campaign to succeed. 2) Educating your customers isn't just a matter of letting people know you're doing whatever you're doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters. Otherwise, for a significant portion of your target market, it's a case of "So what?" and your green marketing campaign goes nowhere. 3) Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits of your environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.
Evolution of Green Marketing:The green marketing has evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing has three phases. First phase was termed as "Ecological" green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was "Environmental" green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third phase was "Sustainable" green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000.
Why Green Marketing:As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization's objective. So green marketing is inevitable. There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and are changing their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.
Green marketing offers business bottom line incentives and top line growth possibilities. While modification of business or production processes may involve start-up costs, it will save money in the long term. For example the cost of installing solar energy is an investment in future energy cost savings. Companies that develop new and improved products and services with environmental impacts in mind give themselves access to new markets, substantially increase profits and enjoy competitive advantages over those marketing non-environmentally responsible alternatives. The Four Ps of Green Marketing:Like conventional marketers, green marketers must address the four Ps in innovative ways. 1.ProductEntrepreneurs wanting to exploit emerging green market either: identify customers environmental needs and develop products to address these needs; or Develop environmentally responsible products to have less impact than competitors. The increasingly wide varieties of products on the market that support sustainable development and are good for the triple bottom line include: Products made from recycled goods, such as Quik N Tuff housing materials made from recycled broccoli boxes. Products that can be recycled or reused. Efficient products, which save water, energy or gasoline, save money and reduce environmental impact. Queensland s only waterless printer, Print point, reduces operating costs by using less water than conventional printers and is able to pass the savings on to customers. Products with environmentally responsible packaging. McDonalds, for example, changed their packaging from polystyrene clamshells to paper.
Products with green labels, as long as they offer substantiation. Organic products many consumers are prepared to pay a premium for organic products, which offer promise of quality. Organic butchers, for example, promote the added qualities such as taste and tenderness. A service that rents or loans products such as toy libraries.Certified products, which meet or exceed environmentally responsible criteria.Whatever the product or service, it is vital to ensure that products meet or exceed the quality expectations of customers and are thoroughly tested. 2. Price-
Pricing is a critical element of the marketing mix. Most customers are prepared to pay a premium if there is a perception of additional product value. This value may be improved performance, function, design, visual appeal or taste. Environmental benefits are usually an added bonus but will often be the deciding factor between products of equal value and quality. Environmentally responsible products, however, are often less expensive when product life cycle costs are taken into consideration. For example fuel-efficient vehicles, water-efficient printing and nonhazardous products. 3. PlaceThe choice of where and when to make a product available has a significant impact on the customers being attracted. Very few customers go out of their way to buy green products merely for the sake of it. Marketers looking to successfully introduce new green products should, in most cases, position them broadly in the market place so they are not just appealing to a small green niche market. The location must also be consistent with the image which a company wants to project. The location must differentiate a company from its competitors. This can be achieved by in-store promotions and visually appealing displays or using recycled materials to emphasize the environmental and other benefits. 4. PromotionPromoting products and services to target markets includes paid advertising, public relations, sales promotions, direct marketing and on-site promotions. Smart green marketers will be able to reinforce environmental credibility by using sustainable marketing and communications tools and practices. For example, many companies in the financial industry are providing electronic statements by email, e-marketing is rapidly replacing more traditional marketing methods, and printed materials can be produced using recycled materials and efficient processes, such as waterless printing. Retailers, for example, are recognizing the value of alliances with other companies, environmental groups and research organizations when promoting their environmental commitment. To reduce the use of plastic bags and promote their green commitment, some retailers sell shopping bags, under the banner of the Go Green Environment Fund. The key to successful green marketing is credibility. Never overstate environmental claims or establish unrealistic expectations, and communicate simply and through sources that people trust.Promote your green credentials and achievements. Publicise stories of the company s and employees green
initiatives.Enter environmental awards programs to profile environmental credentials to customers and stakeholders.
Firms Using Green Marketing :When looking through the literature, there are several suggested reasons for firms increased use of Green Marketing. Five possible reasons cited are: 1. Organizations perceive environmental marketing to be an opportunity that can be used to achieve its objectives 2. 3. Organizations believe they have a moral obligation to be more socially responsible Governmental bodies are forcing firms to become more responsible
4. Competitors' environmental activities pressure firms to change their environmental marketing activities 5. Cost factors associated with waste disposal, or reductions in material usage forces firms to modify their behavior (A) OpportunitiesIt appears that all types of consumers, both individual and industrial are becoming more concerned and aware about the natural environment. Nowadays, firms marketing goods with environmental characteristics have realized a competitive advantage over firms marketing non-environmentally responsible alternatives. There are numerous examples of firms who have strived to become more environmentally responsible, in an attempt to better satisfy their consumer needs. McDonald's replaced its clam shell packaging with waxed paper because of increased consumer concern relating to polystyrene production and Ozone depletion Tuna manufacturers modified their fishing techniques because of the increased concern over driftnet fishing, and the resulting death of dolphins Xerox introduced a "high quality" recycled photocopier paper in an attempt to satisfy the demands of firms for less environmentally harmful products. This does not mean that all firms who have undertaken environmental marketing activities actually improve their behavior. In some cases, firms have misled consumers in an attempt to gain market share. In many other cases firms have jumped on the green bandwagon without considering the accuracy of their behavior, their claims, or the effectiveness of their products. This lack of consideration of the true "greenness" of activities may result in firms making false or misleading green marketing claims.
(B) Social ResponsibilityMany firms are beginning to realize that they are members of the wider community and therefore must behave in an environmentally responsible fashion. This translates into firms that believe they must achieve environmental objectives as well as profit related objectives. This results in environmental issues being integrated into the firm's corporate culture. Firms in this situation can take two perspectives: 1) they can use the fact that they are environmentally responsible as a marketing tool; or 2) they can become responsible without promoting this fact. There are examples of firms adopting both strategies. Organizations like the Body Shop heavily promote the fact that they are environmentally responsible. While this behavior is a competitive advantage, the firm was established specifically to offer consumers environmentally responsible alternatives to conventional cosmetic products. This philosophy directly ties itself to the overall corporate culture, rather than simply being a competitive tool. An example of a firm that does not promote its environmental initiatives is Coca-Cola. They have invested large sums of money in various recycling activities, as well as having modified their packaging to minimize its environmental impact. While being concerned about the environment, Coke has not used this concern as a marketing tool. Thus many consumers may not realize that Coke is a very environmentally committed organization. Another firm who is very environmentally responsible but does not promote this fact, at least outside the organization, is Walt Disney World (WDW). WDW has an extensive waste management program and infrastructure in place, yet these facilities are not highlighted in their general tourist promotional activities. (C) Governmental PressureGovernmental regulations relating to environmental marketing are designed to protect consumers in several ways: 1) reduce production of harmful goods or by-products; 2) modify consumer and industry's use and/or consumption of harmful goods; or 3) ensure that all types of consumers have the ability to evaluate the environmental composition of goods. These governmental regulations are designed to control the amount of hazardous wastes produced by firms. Many by-products of production are controlled through the issuing of various environmental licenses, thus modifying organizational behavior. In some cases governments try to "induce" final consumers to become more responsible. For example, some governments have introduced voluntary curb-side recycling programs, making it easier for consumers to act responsibly. In other cases governments tax individuals who act in an irresponsible fashion. For example in Australia there is a higher gas tax associated with leaded petrol. One of the recent publicized environmental regulations undertaken by governments has been the establishment of guidelines designed to "control" green marketing claims. These regulations include the Australian Trade Practices Commission's (TPC) "Environmental Claims in Marketing - A Guideline, the US Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) "Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims" and the regulations suggested by the National Association of Attorneys-General. All these regulations were
designed to ensure appropriate information to consumers so that they could evaluate firm's environmental claims. Thus, governmental attempts to protect consumers from false or misleading claims theoretically provide consumers with the ability to make more informed decisions. (D) Competitive PressureAnother major force in the environmental marketing area has been a firm s desire to maintain its competitive position. In many cases, firms observe competitors promoting their environmental behaviors and attempt to emulate this behavior. It is only in some instances that this competitive pressure causes an entire industry to modify and thus reduce its detrimental environmental behavior. For example, it could be argued that Xerox's "Revive 100% Recycled paper" was introduced a few years ago in an attempt to address the introduction of recycled photocopier paper by other manufacturers. In another example when one tuna manufacture stopped using driftnets, the others followed suit. (E) Cost / Profit IssuesCertain firms use green marketing to address cost/profit related issues. Disposing of environmentally harmful by-products, such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contaminated oil are becoming increasingly costly and in some cases difficult. Therefore, when attempting to minimize waste, firms are often forced to re-examine their production processes. In these cases, they often develop more effective production processes that not only reduce waste, but reduce the need for some raw materials. This serves as a double cost savings, since both waste and raw material are reduced. In many other cases, it has been found that firms find end-of-pipe solutions, instead of minimizing waste. In these situations firms try to find markets or uses for their waste materials, where one firm's waste becomes another firm's input of production.