| Abstract | It is spring 2015, the largest outlet glacier of the world's largest tropical ice cap has retreated, leaving a lake some 86 acres in area and about 60 metres deep.2 Carbon dioxide levels in the air are at their highest in 650,000 years.3 The global temperature has risen for 2 Celsius since the year 1880. Nine of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000.4 In 2012, Arctic summer sea ice shrank to the lowest extent on record.5 Global average sea level has risen over the past 100 years and if it continues at this rate it could make the beautiful cities of Amsterdam and Venice an attraction only for fish and divers. Global forest lost between 2000 and 2012 would cover the combined area of Croatia, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Ireland, Slovenia, Austria, France, and Denmark.6 In order to change the course of potentially catastrophic climate trend, the world is meeting in December, 2015, in Paris, France for the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
To make things worse, the planet is not the only one being hurt, Eurostat estimates that 23.887 million men and women in the EU, were unemployed in February 2015.7 Youth unemployment rate in the EU in February 2015 was 21.1%, while for instance in Croatia it was 46.4% and in Spain it was a staggering 50.7%.8 As the EU economy is still recovering, as a consequence, eurosceptic and extremist parties in whole of EU are on the rise. Most notably, David Cameron and Marine Le Pen are promising to organize a referendum in 2017 in their countries offering an exit from the EU, if they are elected as the leaders of the respective countries in the next elections. If the fifth and sixth economy of the world would indeed leave the European Union, it would put the whole project of EU in jeopardy. |
