A 15-year-old schoolgirl inspired me to write this article!!!
Around 2 years ago a piece of news caught my attention
A 15-year-old girl striking her schools on Fridays for protesting in front of the Swedish parliament holding a sign “SCHOOL STRIKE FOR CLIMATE”
At first, I thought it was just a publicity stunt and I moved on!!
But, about a year ago, another news gave me a surprise!!
The same girl refused to fly to New York for a UN climate conference because of its environmental impact. Instead, she made her way there on a racing yacht(which even didn’t have any toilet facilities) alone in a journey that lasted two weeks.
Her name is “GRETA THUNBERG”
She inspired millions and millions of people to take part in climate strike and was awarded “Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019”
I realized at that moment “ A 15-year-old girl is trying this much to make a difference in the world. Why don’t we try??
So, at the end of the article if I am able to make a difference in your thoughts
It’s a win for me!!!
This article is not going to be about
“How the government should have done that” or “How the Government should have done this”
This is going to be about
“What you can do to make a change in the world”
But, don’t worry I am not going to list all the electric cars available and try to convert you to electric (Note: Converting to electric will also reduce carbon emissions, So if you are considering it, Please convert to electric cars!!)
In this article, I am going to explain how climate change is affecting the world in the way you can not even imagine(yes, Big SPOILERS ahead!!) and how a change in your daily habits can save your world.
Effects of climate change:
The reason for writing this topic is not to create a panic in you by saying
“ These are the cities that are going to destroy in 2040”
“This is how the earth will be in 2080”.
The real reason to write this topic is to make clear that climate change is not only a problem for Antarctica anymore, and how it is affecting our daily life without we even realizing it.
1. Increase in sea level:
(How can I write an article about Global warming and not mention the sea level increase, So bear this topic and I guarantee, the next topic will be different)
Due to our activities such as rapid deforestation and emission of pollutants from industries, the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has increased considerably, which increases the overall temperature of the planet resulting in the melting of ice glaciers and an increase in sea level.
you probably would have heard about this effect a hundred times!!!!!
so, Let’s see some unheard effects of climate change.
2. Your Coffee is in danger!!!:
Dear Coffee lovers,
I got one bombshell news for you!!
By 2050, the amount of land that can sustain coffee cultivation will be reduced by 50%.
Let me explain, why??
Generally, coffee plants will be cultivated only in hill regions. Because the plant needs temperatures between 18–21 degrees celsius.
* Too hot makes the coffee berries won’t grow correctly.
* Too cold can freeze the plant to death.
Crucially, it needs warm days and cool nights to grow best at a certain elevation(Meaning-height).
But, Greenhouse gas emissions have warmed the coffee growing regions by 1.2-degree Celsius(Which is a lot!!) and pushed the optimum elevation for coffee growing to a higher elevation.
It resulted in the coffee plants which are below the optimum elevation to die because of the overheating and increase in microbial infections. So the farmers are planting their coffee plants at a new height every year. (But, eventually, they will run out of areas to plant coffee!!)
So, there is going to be a massive shortage of coffee in the upcoming years.
(I hope, at least the coffee community will have a difference in their thoughts about global warming after reading this portion.)
3. The reason for COVID-19 is not BATS!! IT’S DEFORESTATION.
Not only COVID-19, the reason for every pandemic that seems to originate from wildlife such as
*SARS
*EBOLA
and of course the ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
*COVID-19 is DEFORESTATION.
Wildlife species often get susceptible to various viruses and other infections due to their surrounding nature and their behavior activities which are common.
But, what’s not common, is the number of viruses that transfer from animals to human beings keeps increasing every year.
The reason for this is, we are occupying more and more wildlife areas each year and we are in close contact with all the wild lives. So, we are the ones that are increasing the chance of getting infected.
It’s like “Touching a cactus and accusing the cactus, for your blood”.
Deforestation not only increases the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere but also increases the risk of Pandemic in the atmosphere(1+1 offer!!)
So, Instead of blaming the bats, try to prevent the trees if you don’t want the next pandemic…
In addition to these, every natural disaster you heard from the news recently such as
*Australian Forest Fires
*African Floods
*Millions of cicadas affecting agricultural lands all over the world.
All these events have a direct link to climate change.
Not thinking about climate change is not your fault!!
Every human being have a tendency
“If the problem is very fearful and if we think we can’t do anything about it we always try to distract from the problem and try to focus on other things”
That’s the case for Global warming.
Whenever we hear a piece of news about Global warming we always panic and think that
“I can’t even solve my own personal problems, Then why do I have to think about a problem which I can do nothing about”
This kind of Panic approach towards Global warming will not motivate you to do anything.
The best way to approach Global warming is “Competitiveness”.
I will tell you an example of that.
Our success story in the ozone hole!!!:
If you have watched the news about 10 to 15 years ago Climate change is not the worrying case at that time. We had a huge problem called “Ozone hole”
“Due to the increased emission of a gas called Chlorofluorocarbon(which is used in fridges), a hole is generating in the protective layer of earth called Ozone which can cause serious effects to our human body”.
This news filled our headlines and every people realized that fridges with chlorofluorocarbons are the reason for this.
This resulted in a huge downfall in the purchase of fridges and the companies were forced to change chlorofluorocarbons to some other cooling agents.
As a result of this, the ozone layer started to heal and it was expected to completely heal about 2050.
This kind of approach is the utmost need for Global warming.
The main reason people have not reacted to Global warming in the way they reacted for the Ozone hole is “that we are not clear how an individual can change the effects of climate change”.
We are misguided that this is a Government Problem and an individual can’t do anything about it.
I will try to tell you in the following topics how an individual can change the impact that even Governments can’t achieve.
So, climate change is not about a SINKING ICEBERG ANYMORE!!!. It is affecting each and every part of your lives in the ways we can’t even imagine.
What you eat has a climate impact!!
Before deciding your meal for the next day, try to answer yourself for this question.
*How much energy goes into producing it?
Every raw material requires some energy in order to produce it and it varies from one product to another.
For growing Fruits and Vegetables:
The chemical fertilizers we use for growing fruits and vegetables contain nitrous oxide which is 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
So, in order to avoid this, we can switch to organic farming products that rely on natural manure and compost for fertilizer.
If more and more people start to switch to organic products then in order to meet the demand, the government itself will incentivize farmers to switch to organic farming which reduces the loss for the farmers who are currently using fertilizers for growing plants.
(We, the consumers can demand what we want to eat!!!)
For growing animals:
Growing animals for food also takes much energy.
In order to eat meat, First, we have to feed the animal. The grains we produce to feed animals come from the agricultural land which means they have to use fertilizers to produce it!!
So, More fertilizers mean more pollution.
Also, the demand for meat is so huge that your local farmer cannot meet the demand. So, in order to meet the demand, they have to import meat from neighboring states or countries which involve transportation.
I don’t have to tell you how transportation can cause global warming!!!
So, what we can do is we can reduce the consumption of meat which decreases demand, which results in less transportation.
Enlighten your younger generation:
This step is crucial if we want to recover from Global warming permanently.
You may not be in a position to reduce the tons and tons of greenhouse gas emissions. But the younger generation is only going to be the future of the planet. They are going to be future industrialists, politicians, and automobile makers.
So, make them understand that “Money is not more important than clean air”
OOTSUK is an educational platform that is a pioneer in enlightening the younger generation in various concepts of science and technology. If you want to learn more about climate change visit www.ootsuk.com/explore.
Conclusion:
It is our Mother Nature, we as her children is our responsibility to protect her at all costs.
Finally, Let’s be clear about something.
Fighting for Climate change is not a Global Cause!!!
IT’S A FIGHT FOR YOUR OWN CHILDREN AND YOUR OWN GRANDCHILDREN!!!!
If you want to learn more,
Visit www.ootsuk.com/contests where we trigger your knowledge based on your interest and on your curiosity. You can also download the android app:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details? id=com.ootsuk
