Six Misunderstood Climate Change Terminologies
1. Carbon footprint
Just consider for a while that the whole atmosphere with billions and billions of tons of carbon dioxide is a crime scene. Now a forensic team of climate experts visits the crime scene to collect plausible evidence of crucial importance. One such collectible evidence is the footprint which is the imprints left by the person who witnessed or contributed in some way to the commission of the crime. In the same way, climate scientists have defined carbon footprint as the total amount of greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide and methane) added by the activities of each individual.
The top 20 emitters of CO2 are responsible for 78% of total global emissions.
The following countries are the ten largest emitters of carbon dioxide:
1. China (9.3 GT)
2. United States (4.8 GT)
3. India (2.2 GT)
4. Russia (1.5 GT)
5. Japan (1.1 GT)
6. Germany (0.7 GT)
7. South Korea (0.6 GT)
8. Iran (0.6 GT)
9. Canada (0.5 GT)
10. Saudi Arabia (0.5 GT)
To calculate your carbon footprint, you can click the link below;
https://www3.epa.gov/carbon-footprint-calculator/
2. Climate Change and Global Warming
What the hell climate change and global warming are? You would have often heard laymen yelling out in the backyard or probably at a bar. one very convenient and easy way to make a layman understand these terminologies is simply in terms of processes and outcomes. So without any ado, climate change is a process that has fathered global warming as an outcome. Global warming is a ubiquitous phenomenon that affects the entire globe, whereas climate change is restricted in terms of its physical boundaries when it comes to its geographic origin. For instance, if an industrial zone or coal-powered factory in China or America releases tons of greenhouse gases, their subsequent effects of warming will not spare the Himalayan or alpine glaciers. Although restricted to a particular area in terms of geographic origin, climate change does not consider the political or geographical boundaries when inflicting it’s in consequences.
Now a thought-provoking question for you:
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL WARMING?
3. Environmental Justice
Now you have heard a million times the word JUSTICE. Justice is not a restricted or finite phenomenon that concerns conventional civil or criminal cases in the courts. Besides, you might have read about the four well-known dimensions of Justice: Social Justice, Economic Justice, Political Justice and Legal Justice. Keeping in view the highly vulnerable communities that are more exposed to adverse effects of climate change, climate protagonists have introduced Environmental Justice as a new climate change terminology. Repeated studies have identified a list of vulnerable communities and populations in the developing countries, which are a hit hard target of climate change. They are rural communities and highly vulnerable biodiversity that maintain a variety of life cycles in diverse habitats. These are often tending to be hit harder by climate change. Environmental justice includes the development and application of policies that address the wellbeing of vulnerable communities regardless of any racial, social, national and cast based discriminations.
The German watch institute presented the results of the Global Climate Risk Index 2020 during COP25 in Madrid
1. JAPAN (Climate Risk Index: 5.5
2. PHILIPPINES (Climate Risk Index: 11.17)
3. GERMANY (Climate Risk Index: 13.83)
4. MADAGASCAR (Climate Risk Index: 15.83)
5. INDIA (Climate Risk Index: 18.17)
Thought-provoking question
DO OUR EFFORTS IN THIS CRUCIAL TIME ARE LAGGING BEHIND IN DISPENSING ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE OR WE ARE FALLING TO THE FAMOUS MAXIM ‘JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED?
4. Food Security
Hey, hold on! Here is new terminology and it is FOOD SECURITY. You might have heard it during the political and social debates on different media platforms. True food security is attained when every individual of the society has sufficient economic and physical resources to meet his or her daily nutrient intake for a life uninterrupted. It’s quite obvious that the cumulative effects of climate change and global warming has run havoc on the traditional cropping patterns, the invasion of the rising sea waters into productive deltas and the subsequent habitat loss has contributed to the insecurity of food to vulnerable communities and population in the developing countries.
The Global Report on Food Crises is prepared by 16 leading global and regional organizations belonging to the Global Network Against Food Crises and released annually by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN), led by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP), and IFPRI.
1. Yemen
2. The Democratic Republic of the Congo
3. Afghanistan
4. Venezuela
5. Ethiopia
6. South Sudan
7. Syria
8. Sudan
9. Nigeria (northern regions)
10. Haiti
5. Methane
The well-known culprit Carbon dioxide is thought to be singularly responsible for global warming by the common masses, but there is something which is significantly more detrimental. It is a great retainer of heat as it absorbs 28 times more infrared radiations as compared to carbon dioxide when averaged over a period of 100 years. And again the big dairy farms sheltering 1 billion cows are responsible for a greater portion of methane through cow burping, farting and of course pooping. Now what to do about this is what the poor cows have to say.
Top 10 methane emitting countries according to the website indexmundi.com
Rank Country Value Year
1 China
2 India
3 Russia
4 United States
5 Brazil
6 Indonesia
7 Pakistan
8 Australia
9 Iran
10 Mexico
6. Mitigation
The word mitigation means to reduce the adverse effects of something in a way that is more bearable and less painful in terms of severity and harshness. Mitigation in climate change science means creating procedures and processes in terms of national and global legislations, innovative and clean technologies, positive and science-based propaganda on different media platforms and global educational institutions. Thus creating a society that is environmentally sustainable and that demands the full cooperation of individuals, multi-national corporations, governments and international bodies to bring a pragmatic and sustainable everlasting positive change.
Top countries that are leading efforts for fighting against climate change
1. Denmark
2. Belgium
3. Portugal
4. Malta
5. Luxembourg
6. Morocco
7. Cyprus
8. United Kingdom
9. Sweden
10. France
