Nairobi — The year 2007 has been the hottest ever in the history of climate record-keeping, according to a Japanese weather monitoring agency.

It is now nearly universally accepted that the rise in global temperatures is caused by an increase in carbon dioxide that traps heat in the atmosphere.

A lot of that colourless, odourless, incombustible gas has been pumped into the atmosphere by industries, particularly those in rich, developed countries. Industrialising developing countries such as China and India have now also joined the ranks of the top polluters.

Twenty per cent of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the direct result of deforestation, experts say. And that's where Kenyans have made their contribution: through massive clearing of forests to make way for agriculture.

The effects of global warming are already evident in many parts of Kenya - rivers and streams that have dried up, changing seasons, poor rainfall in many parts, disappearing glaciers on Mount Kenya and melting snowfields on Kilimanjaro in neighbouring Tanzania which act as fresh water reservoirs for this country.

In other words, and among other factors, clearing forests to make way for agriculture is largely a futile thing because the effects of deforestation on climate makes agriculture impossible.

The United Nations conference on climate change ended yesterday in the Indonesian resort of Bali with a road map for negotiations to result in a global treaty on the reduction of greenhouse gases.

The new treaty will replace the expiring Kyoto Protocol which put a cap on carbon emissions by developed countries. The United States signed but did not ratify the treaty; the European Union has made valiant efforts at cutting emissions.

The rich countries are wary of emission caps because they fear the costs associated with them might damage their economies and the standards of living of their people. The developing countries argue that since the rich countries got rich by poisoning the planet, they should take the lead (and the cost) in the cleanup.

While these arguments are going on, the fact remains that developing countries are in greater danger from global warming.

There is something all nations can do. While the rich ones control emissions from their factories, the poor ones can halt the destruction of forests and begin to replant them.