Exploring an Unconventional Solution for Environmental Issues

I’m a 15 year old teenager in Bangalore, India hoping to contribute to the change I want to see in this world. Starting with this post, is my regular series based on environmental issues across the globe and on a less talked about solution that I am exploring.

Over the years, most of us have heard of climate change, and global warming and have probably also heard something along the lines of how it will lead to world apocalypse. In fact, a lot of us today have grown up hearing this.

Climate change is basically a change in both global and regional climate patterns that have been especially apparent since the mid 20th century and it is largely attributed to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

And now, another concept, the greenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect is a phenomenon used by the Earth to keep its surface warm and habitable for all life forms living out here. This effect uses greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to trap and absorb heat emitted by the sun. Global warming is the effect of the ongoing rise of the Earth’s average temperature because of a drastic increase in the greenhouse effect. Therefore, global warming is major feature of climate change.

Basically climate change is attributed to the Earth’s response, or its symptoms to the problem of excessive global warming.

Now, the rise in the Earth’s surface temperature results in all sorts of extreme changes in climate and weather. These extreme climatic changes due to our warming planet not only mean higher temperatures and things related to it, but can also mean extremely cold conditions like severe snowstorms. So just because you happen to see that some area is suddenly experiencing extremely cold weather, it does not mean that climate change is not real. Instead, it proves that it is real.

And yes, climate change IS REAL. There are enough studies to prove it.

Causes

The causes of global warming are many but most are due to human influence in both direct and indirect ways.

The top five causes of global warming are :

1. Industrial Activity
2. Deforestation
3. Agricultural Activity
4. Automobiles
5. Overpopulation

Source: Attribution of recent climate change — Wikipedia

But, there are plenty of other major causes like travel and transportation, energy overuse and consumerism. There also happen to be seemingly unrelated things like gender inequality, which contribute to global warming. Not in the largest of magnitudes but they still do. Even cows contribute to global warming! Livestock emissions contribute to about 13–18% of global emissions.

The Goals of Global Organisations

With the start of the industrial revolution, the usage of fossil fuels like coal and petroleum increased drastically. This led to the increase of global temperatures leading to what we know today as global warming. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), such human induced warming caused the Earth’s temperature to increase by approximately 1°C by 2017, as compared to pre-industrial levels. It’s temperature has been increasing at a rate of about 0.2°C per decade.

The goal of programs like the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the IPCC is to keep the increase in global warming below 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) as compared to pre-industrial levels in order to avoid irreversible impacts on the Earth’s climate system like extreme weather, melting of the permafrost, extinction of many species and drastic ecosystem changes to name a few.

Mitigation

There are various methods being developed and used to try and reduce the rates of global warming. Options commonly talked about include renewable and alternative sources of energy so as to reduce fossil fuel consumption, thereby, reducing emissions. Practices like planting of trees, afforestation, carbon footprint reduction and so on are also popular. There are hundreds of solutions out there today, and many of these solutions have been also listed down by the organisation - Project Drawdown. Project Drawdown is a non-profit organisation that is looking at how the world can reach “Drawdown”- a future point in time when greenhouse gases stop increasing and instead start decreasing.

So here’s the awesome thing about a lot of these solutions. They also happen to solve a lot of social and economic issues. For example, even if fossil fuels didn’t heat up the Earth the way they do, they are still non-renewable sources of energy. It is estimated that in about 50 years we will run out of crude oil and about a 100 years in the case of coal. Hence, we will have to start shifting to renewable sources of energy anyways! As for, say, gender inequality. Well, it is a real social issue our society faces today. Dealing with gender inequality will be beneficial to both society and the environment.

So, how does planting of trees reduce greenhouse gas emissions?

They actually don’t reduce what’s being emitted, but they do absorb what’s already been emitted, thereby, reducing the concentration of these gases in the air.

Carbon Sequestration

Now here’s a fancy new term. Although it is probably something some of us have occasionally heard before.

Carbon sequestration or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) is the long-term removal, capture or sequestration (in a way, absorption) of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to slow or reverse atmospheric pollution, thereby, trying to reverse global warming.

In nature, carbon sequestration occurs through all kinds of physical, chemical and biological processes.

You remember how trees reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Technically speaking, they are sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.

Carbon sequestration is required today because even though we have alternative sources of energy, which will reduce our consumption of fossil fuels, we need a technique to remove the excess carbon that has already been put out there.

Conclusion

To conclude, climate change is a symptom of global warming and this really needs to be addressed. There is a lot being done already and we should definitely heed the warnings of scientists and environmentalists so as to avoid saying hello to an apocalypse. Carbon sequestration is an unconventional means to help combat this issue.

It would be great if you would share this post with others. We must care about our amazing planet. I might be a teenager today but I would love to see this world stay green in my future.