It isn’t too late!
There are many problems in the world and even more, are the types of people dealing with it. There is one group of people that understands the severity of the problem and learns to solve it while there is another group of people, that even after realizing the problem does nothing to eliminate it. There is also a group of people that refuses to identify its existence and even go as far as spreading false information about it, and these are the most dangerous ones. Being as gullible as we humans are, we tend to choose the easiest path offered to us without even doing any research and figuring out the problem.
One of the most critical threats that the environment is facing right now is climate change, or more specifically global warming which as we know is the gradual increase in the overall temperature of the earth’s atmosphere due to increased levels of carbon dioxide, CFCs and other pollutants. And while it is easy to complain about how hot it is getting, we do nothing about it. We put all the blame on industries, saying that they are the major contributors to the problem. But let’s face it; because scientists are more confident than ever that human beings are the ones that cause global warming with their daily activities.
Climate change encompasses not only rising average temperatures but also extreme weather events, diminishing wildlife populations and habitats, rising seas, and a range of other impacts. All of these changes continue to emerge as humans cannot seem to stop adding heat-trapping greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, thereby changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely on.
Levels of greenhouse gases have been fluctuating for quite some time going by Earth’s history, but they had been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures had also stayed more or less the same over that time- until the past 150 years, which just happens to be the dawn of the industrial revolution around the world. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other activities, large amounts of greenhouse gases have been emitted, particularly over the past few decades, and humans are now worsening it in ways that guarantee consequences that aren’t promising from any angle whatsoever.
Human activity isn’t the only factor that affects Earth’s climate. Volcanic eruptions and variations in solar radiation from sunspots, solar wind, and the Earth’s position relative to the sun also play a role. So do large-scale weather patterns such as El-Nino. But climate models that scientists use to monitor Earth’s temperatures take those factors into account. Changes in solar radiation levels, as well as minute particles suspended in the atmosphere from volcanic eruptions, have contributed only a very small fraction of the recent warming effect.
The short time-span of this recent warming is singularly troubling as well. Volcanic eruptions emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth’s surface. But their effect lasts just a few years. Events like El-Nino also work in fairly short and predictable cycles. On the other hand, the types of global temperature fluctuations that have contributed to ice ages occur in a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years. For millennia now, emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere have been balanced out by greenhouse gases that are naturally absorbed. As a result, greenhouse gas concentrations and temperatures have been relatively stable, which has allowed human civilization to flourish within a consistent climate. The problem arises now as the rate at which greenhouse gases are produced is much larger than the amount that can possibly be absorbed. Changes that have historically taken thousands of years are now happening over the course of decades.
The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it’s changing the climate faster than some living things can adapt to. Also, a new and more unpredictable climate poses unique challenges to all life.
As the temperature rises, the climate can change in unexpected ways. In addition to sea levels rising, weather can only be expected to become more extreme. This means more intense storms, heavier rains followed by more prolonged and drier droughts, changes in the temperature and acidity ranges in which plants and animals can live, and loss of water bodies that have historically come from glaciers.
The way Earth is right now, we are barely surviving in it. We are alive not just to survive, but also to live. If we do nothing about this situation right now, we might not even be alive for too long. It is possible to save the Earth if we take immediate action. It isn’t too late!
