Human Induced Climate Change and How We Can Implement Changes
Climate change is an universal issue and will continue to affect everyone on Earth if there is no change. Greenhouse gases produced by humans rapidly heat the Earth. The future of climate change depends on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere. Whether we like it or not, saving the Earth is extremely important and human induced climate change is a real problem. Luckily, there are ways to combat climate change, but it is up to everyone to take the actions needed to stop climate change.
The Earth’s temperatures will continue to rise for many years to come, almost entirely due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, includes more than 1,300 scientists from the United States and other countries. These scientists, The warming of the Earth will have beneficial impacts in some regions but will be very harmful in other regions. Some of the human activities that cause climate change are, the overproduction of livestock, the emissions of carbon dioxide, deforestation, and the emission of CFCs.
It is scary that an overpopulation of farting livestock has such drastic impacts to the environment. When hearing about climate change, you would think of big factories that produce carbon dioxide and other air pollutants, but these gases change the climate at a slower rate than cows farting methane. Methane gas warms the atmosphere at a much larger scale than any other gas. Keeping the methane gas levels down is crucial to keeping a regular climate. Carbon dioxide has a large impact on the Earth’s climate but is not nearly as detrimental as methane gas. There is an over abundance of cows and other livestock, especially in America, because there is massive amounts of large scale farming. Just like humans, the cows pass gas. When an animal or human passes gas, it is the animal naturally producing methane gas. Normally, animals emitting gas is not a problem, but now there is so much large scale farming going on. In 2012, there were more than 800,000, a 28 percent increase in large farms according to Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Large scale farming leads to an overabundance of livestock on Earth, which causes a major producer of methane. It would be great to just stop allowing large scale farming to continue but no one can go out and tell the farmers who are large scale farming to just stop producing cows (unless the government wanted to). Large scale farming is how a lot of farmers get their money.
We need to change things for the environment, but what you may not realize is that we already have many of the solutions. We just have to implement it. In the wild, a cow’s diet would be the grasses around them, but now that they are not wild, they are fed grain and other food that makes them emit more methane than if they were just eating a regular diet. There is a specific type of seaweed named Asparagopsis taxiformis which can reduce the large amount of methane that animals emit into the atmosphere dramatically. Growing and feeding livestock Asparagopsis and other types of seaweed and algae would help change worldwide climate change drastically. Thirty percent of Carbon Dioxide is eaten up from the ocean because the ocean holds up to half of Earth’s photosynthesis. Algae and seaweed grow more efficiently and quickly and are much more capable of using more carbon dioxide. Growing these types of plants would help stop livestock from emitting so much methane gas and would also eat up more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If farmers started growing their own Asparagopsis, or shipping it in, they would be helping to reduce carbon emissions, methane emissions and it would be cheaper for the farmer instead of the grains previously provided for their livestock. Growing water plants are more efficient, cheaper, and better at absorbing carbon emissions than land plants.
Another way we are affecting the climate are from carbon emissions. The first cause for human carbon emissions is from manufacturing. One way to cut down on Carbon Dioxide emissions can be done by building coastal wind turbines. Wind Turbines that are built on the coasts of oceans get pushed by strong winds produced by ocean waves. Wind turbines are usually built in flat open farmland where the winds are not very strong. Building wind turbines in flat farmland where winds are not strong does not utilize all of the energy gaining potential that a more windy area with wind turbines could. The efficiency of having coastal wind turbines is stunning because they gain three times the energy than wind turbines in flat rural areas. Wind turbines by coasts should be used worldwide because of the massive benefits of gaining renewable energy.
Deforestation is another major contributor to climate change. Our population on Earth is growing rapidly and more homes, companies and factories are needing to be built. This results in humans going in heavy forests and us just tearing them down. There is a major need for forests when trying to combat climate change. While humans breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide, plants “breathe” in carbon dioxide and “breathe” out oxygen. Since forests use carbon dioxide to live, forests can use a lot of the climate changing carbon emissions humans produce. Tearing forests down automatically increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere because there are less plants to take in the carbon dioxide. Even without our man-produced carbon emissions, deforestation would increase carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but then you add all of the carbon emissions humans produce and then there is double the global warming from carbon dioxide.
Another way the Earth’s climate is affected by carbon emissions is from the massive amounts of cars in the world. Cars are a major contributor to the Earth’s climate changing. More people are becoming mobile in today’s world. More people on the move means there are more people using cars and trucks. Passenger cars are one of the most polluting types of cars as newer cars are of the cleanest. Today, the majority of cars use gasoline. When gasoline is used in a car it produces carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. Not only are these gases harmful to the environment and cause global warming, they are also terrible for human health. The European Parliament says that “Transport is responsible for nearly 30% of the European Union’s total CO2 emissions, of which 72% comes from road transportation.” There is hope because there are ways to reduce carbon emissions from our cars. Cars can be made more efficient or the fuel they use could be changed. Electric cars could be the future of cutting down major amounts of carbon emissions.
Urban cities are another cause for climate change. Urban cities call for lots of cement and few green spaces. Cities have low albedo. Albedo is the ability for a surface to reflect light. White things like clouds and ice naturally have high albedo. One way to make a city have more albedo is painting buildings white and making cement white instead of black or gray. Cement and blacktop absorb heat which makes the area warm. The low albedo in cities causes hotspots of warming and with so many hotspots all over the world, cities alone start to warm the Earth. One way you could help increase albedo in your city is by painting the outside of your apartment white.
A lot of people are moving to urban areas. Urbanization causes overcrowding, pollution, and poor sanitation. Massive amounts of urbanisation leads to deforestation because more trees and green spaces are converted into cities expanding urban space. The effect of more people moving to a centralized place has an effect on climate because there are more carbon dioxide emissions. In urban cities, more greenhouse gases are produced because there are usually more cars, factories, and other carbon emissions.
The Ozone layer is a crucial part in keeping Earth’s climate regular. The Ozone blocks out very strong UV sun rays that are harmful to all animals on Earth. The Ozone layer is made up of clusters of ozone molecules in the stratosphere. In recent years, the Ozone layer has been depleted by Chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs. CFCs are man made chemicals that are terrible for the ozone layer. CFCs were made in hair sprays and in cooling systems. “The Montreal Protocol, finalized in 1987, is a global agreement to protect the stratospheric ozone layer by phasing out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances” (The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer). The Montreal Protocol banned the use of CFCs in many countries all over the world but there are still countries that allow CFCs. The countries that allow CFCs are actively destroying the ozone layer. One country in particular that uses giant amounts of CFCs is China. China uses CFCs because it is more efficient than other chemicals and they do not care about the way the environment will change from these chemicals.
Although the Earth needs its ozone layer, man made ozone is very bad for the Earth’s climate. Man made ozone is called ground ozone because it stays in the bottom part of the atmosphere where humans live instead of the stratosphere. Man made ozone is toxic to breathe in and warms Earth exponentially. Ground ozone is not formed by just one gas, it is formed by nitrogen, oxides, and volatile organic compounds that cause chemical reactions when UV rays hit them, and ground ozone is the result. Man produced ozone is usually formed in cities. It is very easy for wind to carry ozone away from cities because ozone is so dense. The wind takes the ground level ozone all the way to rural communities. People with pre-existing conditions like asthma are at a high risk for breathing in lung harming ozone. Breathing in ozone causes chest pain and it inflames lung airways. Ozone does not just harm humans and animals, it harms plant life too. Ground ozone is more prominent in summer because of the higher amount of UV rays. Spring and summer are growing seasons for most plants and crops and ground ozone will harm plants and crops exposed to ozone. When forests and other plants that oxygenate the air become affected by the ozone and die, it reduces oxygen levels and raises carbon dioxide levels. Ground ozone is already dangerous by itself but it is even more dangerous that producing ground ozone consequently makes more carbon dioxide to be in the air.
It is very scary to know that Earth and its climate are undergoing massive amounts of stress. The Earth is warming and air quality is becoming worse because of human interactions with the environment. Even though there is already a lot of irreversible damage done to Earth, there are ways individual we all can help. Instead of riding in cars, finding a cleaner way of transportation, like riding a bike, is a major contribution to helping Earth’s climate. Reducing the number of cold starts in cars reduces the amount of carbon emissions and helps to reduce ozone levels. Switching to electric cars is a big way to cut down on fumes emitted by cars. Helping to add more albedo to bounce UV rays back to space can cut down on global warming. Choosing to live in less densely populated areas can help reduce warming and prevents clusters of greenhouse gases in one area. Calling for less deforestation allows for more carbon dioxide to be used by trees which automatically reduces climate warming. Informing farmers about reducing large-scale farming or getting them to feed their livestock seaweed and algae instead of grains Advocating for coastal wind turbines and other forms of renewable energy to try and use more green energy is a great way to become involved with the climate change problem.
We all need to seriously start or expand on using cheaper, efficient, and accessible renewable energy sources that are better for the entire world. We need to implement it the changes we want for the world. Human emissions and activities have caused a major increase in global warming, which has caused human induced climate change. Things like globally increased temperature, rising sea levels, and changes in humidity easily shows the effects of non renewable energy, carbon emissions and other greenhouse gases. Weather will be heavily affected and cause areas to dry up and crops to die. The immense, substantial impact humans have left on the environment through industrial activities, greenhouse gas emissions and ozone depletion from all civilizations can be seen in the polluted oceans, polluted atmosphere, and the earth’s polluted surface.
