Is Climate Change Real?
It is not that really hard to understand how climate change is affecting and may destroy us in future.
To understand climate crisis you don’t have to be a scientist. Imagine yourself locked up in your house from all sides and we pump in black smoke into it. Will you be able to survive? The reason of decline in the climate is somewhat similar. Instead of that black smoke imagine the percentage of carbon in the atmosphere. Our eco system has a natural carbon cycle but now we are over loading the cycle as a result the percentage of carbon content in the air is increasing at a very high rate. For the first time in 800,000 years in 2017 we crossed 400 carbon particles per million (ppm). Today it is 411 ppm, far above the upper limit which is 350 ppm.
Climate change doesn’t affect us directly. But if you notice you will find that all the natural cycles are changing, for example the intensity and interval pattern of rainfall, floods, droughts, fresh water crisis are all acting strange. The increase in carbon level in the atmosphere is also a reason of rising global temperature. And when we talk about rising temperature we need to worry about the ice caps of Antarctica, Arctic & Greenland because they are all melting faster now than ever. Carbon dust from near and far is carried along the wind for thousands of miles. Carbon particles released into the atmosphere by the large amount of wildfire in the North American and industrial emissions, such as those by the ships taking a northerly route are causing havoc to the Greenland ice sheets. Fresh snow reflects up to 90% of sunlight back in the outer space, but because of carbon settling down on ice and the darkening of ice crystal is one of the reasons of faster ice melting process. In a report by PROMICE (Programme for Monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet) where they have found that the snow crystals are undergoing metamorphism. As a result they are becoming poorer reflectors and good absorbers of heat, resulting in faster meltdown. The darkening of the ice sheet is a self-reinforcing mechanism called the melt-albedo feedback.
Pic on Left — A freshly fallen snow crystal has a numerous facets to reflect sunlight.
Pic on Right — Warming causes the grains to round at the edges and clump together.
Scientists across the globe have gathered enough data and documentations to predict that if we don’t act now, we will soon be in danger. The sea level is rising faster than ever. We all know that a large amount of our food comes directly from the farmlands which need river water for its irrigation and cultivation. Imagine the stage when the rising sea level will enter the river channel upstream and make the sweet water into unusable saltwater. Life in rivers will die, water will be unusable for farming. We are already struggling with groundwater, imagine the situation when we will lose both ground and river water. If we do not bring in tight control over this station now our future generation will be in great great trouble.
At this point of time, a question may come in our mind that what are the reasons of climate change after all? The reason is human activity. Our demand, need & luxury is emitting enough carbon, directly and indirectly, to create a misbalance in the natural carbon cycle. The human population is just around 0.01% of all living things present on Earth. But imagine this fraction is solely responsible for erasing 60% of the wildlife population in less than 50 years (WWF Living Planet Report 2018). According to the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America’, just to feed the human population who thrive on animal meat we are producing livestock such as pigs & cattle are now overweighing all wild mammals globally. Chickens throughout the world have reached triple of all other wild birds’ weight. Imagine the use of resources needed to sustain these huge demands for meat. Forest are being cut down to bring in cattle farming. Use of fossil fuel in the transportation of meat across the globe. All these activities and many more will result in carbon emission. Water vapour is very much responsible for maintaining global temperature. With increasing human population the content of water in the atmosphere in the form of gas is also increasing as we exhale water vapour as a part of our respiratory system. As a result, the human population is the largest contributor to the Earth’s greenhouse effect directly. On average, water vapour is probably accountable for about 60% of the warming effect.
(In the picture)The Swedish teenage climate activist, Greta Thunberg (centre), joins other young people for a school strike or demonstration outside the United Nations in New York on 30 August 2019.
Next-generation has realized the alarming situation of the climate crisis. The wave of climate protest is happening across the globe with children from school and colleges demanding a future where they can live. Unfortunately, the situation has gone so worse that children had to skip their education and come out on to the streets shouting for a safe & livable future. Our demands will never end but we can at least bring in some control. Let us live a conscious life where we know what we are doing and what will be the effects of our lifestyle. From our everyday life, we must start focusing on our carbon footprints. Look at things differently, evaluate how much less carbon and resources you can use in your daily life. Buy, eat & wear what you need. Focus on your traveling and even on your waste management. Generate minimal waste including e-waste, save water, live an eco-friendly life. In the beginning, it will be difficult but over a period of time, we can make a change. Change at an individual can impact globally. Let’s promise to keep this earth safe enough for our future generations.
