Climate Change : What we need to know

 

Humans have come quite far in terms of development, but unfortunately have left the concerns for the environment behind.

It is quite common to hear policymakers and the public referring to natural disasters “acts of God”. In the recent times, there have been hundreds of “climate strikes” across the world. This, along with extreme weather conditions like unpredictable monsoons, extended droughts and frequent cyclones, are pushing us to an era of extreme difficulties in every aspect of our lives.

What is Climate Change? 

Climate Change is a periodic modification of Earth’s climate brought about due to the changes in the atmosphere as well as the interactions between the atmosphere and various other geological, chemical, biological and geographical factors within the Earth’s system.

It causes damaging weather events like increase in temperature, frequent intense hurricanes, floods, cyclones, flooding etc. Due to the rising temperature caused by climate change, the ice in the polar regions is melting at an accelerated rate, causing sea levels to rise. This is damaging the coastlines due to the increased flooding and erosion. Also, Climate change can make weather patterns less predictable. These unforeseen weather patterns can make it difficult to maintain and grow crops, making agriculture-dependent countries vulnerable.

Causes and Impacts

The cause of the current rapid climate change is due to human activities and threatening the very survival of humankind. Global warming, the long-term rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system, is a major aspect of climate change. It is mainly a human-caused increase in global surface temperature.

Half of the land-use change is said to have happened during the industrial era. Most of the forests were replaced by agricultural cropping and grazing of lands. Deforestation changes the evapotranspiration rates (the amount of water vapour put in the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration from trees), causes desertification and again raises temperature.

Serious impacts of Climate Change has started to come into picture these days. The Changing climate is giving us serious warning calls. 

1) Floods in the Himalayan Region: The Himalayan region has about 15,000 glaciers, which are retreating at a rate of 100 to 200 feet per decade.

The melting of the Himalayan glaciers that prompted the floods and landslides in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand have the fingerprints of global warming.

In 2013, glacial flooding in Kedarnath caused over 6,000 deaths during the monsoon months.

2) Forest Fires: The year 2020-21 have been seeing many massive and devastating wildfires which are killing many and rendering thousands homeless. 

Several countries have reported their worst fires in decades, including hundreds of deadly fires across the Mediterranean. In Algeria, at least 90 people have been killed.

California’s Dixie fire – the second-largest in the state’s history, and Siberia’s wildfires are being touted as some of the largest fires in recorded history. 

The Amazon fire of 2019, the bushfires of 2019-20 in Australia which started in 2019 and continued until March last year killed or displaced nearly 3B animals including mammals, reptiles, birds and frogs. 

3) Global Emission: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report 2020 showed that the year 2020 set new records in terms of rise in extreme weather events, including wildfires and hurricanes, and in the melting of glaciers and ice at both poles.

According Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report 2021, despite a brief dip in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions caused by the Pandemic, the world will probably reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) of warming within just the next two decades.  

Where does the problem lie? 

Even after discovering various solutions to the problem of climate change like budgetary allocation, making policies and having detailed studies on the subject, the catastrophe is still on an unstoppable path. 

A big worry is that the governments have been diluting, instead of strengthening, climate safeguards for hydroelectric and road projects. And, even if policies are being made and environment treaties are being signed all over the world, serious implementations of these policies are not being done. 

Way Forward

Core to all climate change solutions is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which must get to zero as soon as possible. Because both forests and oceans play vitally important roles in regulating our climate, increasing the natural ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help stop global warming. The main ways to stop climate change are to pressure government and business to:

1. Keep fossil fuels in the ground. Fossil fuels include coal, oil and gas – and the more that are extracted and burned, the worse climate change will get. All countries need to move their economies away from fossil fuels as soon as possible.
2. Invest in renewable energy. Changing our main energy sources to clean and renewable energy is the best way to stop using fossil fuels. These include technologies like solar, wind, wave, tidal and geothermal power.
3. Restore nature to absorb more carbon. The natural world is very good at cleaning up our emissions, but we need to look after it. Planting trees in the right places or giving land back to nature through ‘rewilding’ schemes is a good place to start. This is because photosynthesising plants draw down carbon dioxide as they grow, locking it away in soils.
4. Protect forests like the Amazon. Forests are crucial in the fight against climate change, and protecting them is an important climate solution. Cutting down forests on an industrial scale destroys giant trees which could be sucking up huge amounts of carbon. Yet companies destroy forests to make way for animal farming, soya or palm oil plantations. Governments can stop them by making better laws.
5. Protect the oceans. Oceans also absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which helps to keep our climate stable. But many are overfished, used for oil and gas drilling or threatened by deep sea mining. Protecting oceans and the life in them is ultimately a way to protect ourselves from climate change.

Conclusion 

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and to feel that climate change is too big to solve. But we already have the answers, now it’s a question of making them happen. 

Disasters can not be stopped but well-preparedness and strong climate change mitigation policies can definitely help prevent a huge amount of loss. To work, all of these solutions need strong international cooperation between governments and businesses, including the most polluting sectors. 

Individuals can also play a part by making better choices about where they get their energy, how they travel, and what food they eat. But the best way for anyone to help stop climate change is to take collective action. This means pressuring governments and corporations to change their policies and business practices.