Have you noticed the extreme weather conditions we are facing nowadays?
Climate action
Have you noticed the extreme weather conditions we are facing nowadays? We frequently hear news of droughts, floods, volcanic eruptions, heatwaves, wildfires, and rising sea levels from different parts of world. The culprit, as we all know by now, is climate change.
Climate change
The United Nations defines climate change as “long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns.” Such shifts, the organization explains, can be “natural, due to changes in the Sun’s activity, or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels, like coal, oil, and gas.”
The Earth’s climate has always changed, since the beginning. The question is why it has become a major issue for the past few decades. This is because of human activities like burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and use of non-recyclable plastic bags. Since the industrial revolution in the 1760s in the West, the Earth’s average temperature has risen faster than ever before, thus causing global warming.
Global warming
Global warming has majorly affected our climate. In simple words, global warming is the unusual rise in Earth’s temperature. As a result of burning fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, are emitted into the atmosphere. These gases trap heat from the Sun and thus make the Earth warmer. A rise in greenhouse gases eventually causes more heat to be trapped and results in an increased global average temperature, changing the Earth’s climate.
Effects of climate change
The effects of climate change are intense and long-lasting, and not only threatening human health but also endangering animals, marine life, and plants.
Plants need moisturized soil with a lot of microorganisms, like bacteria, fungi, and viruses, for proper growth, but as the temperature rises, the soil health deteriorates.
The other effects of climate change include droughts, floods, raised sea levels, unpredictable weather conditions, and mass displacements in both developed and developing countries.
Tackling climate change
First of all, we should take this matter seriously as it is a global issue and it is high time to work on its solution and think of the future of humanity. For several years, climate activists have been working hard to minimize its harmful effects. We can also play our role in reducing the effects of climate change by using public transport, decarbonizing the transportation system and manufacturing processes, generating electricity from greener energy sources (like solar, hydroelectric, or wind energy), limiting deforestation and planting more and more trees, vertical farming, and recycling.
Carbon negative countries
In an effort to reduce the carbon footprint, countries are trying to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere rather than adding it. There are three countries in the world that are now carbon negative. According to a report published in World Population Review, Bhutan – where forests absorb more carbon dioxide than the country emits – is the first country to become carbon negative, Suriname is the second, and Panama is the third.
It’s about time more countries make an effort to join this list.
