Global Warming and Climate Change: An Alarming issue since 19th Century.

Introduction

Climate change is defining the issues of our times and we are at a defining moment. From shifting weather patterns to rising sea levels causing catastrophic flooding, the impacts of climate change are global in scope and unprecedented in scale. Global warming and Climate Change are the recent and alarming issue for earth’s environment.

Global warming, as the term guides, is the gradual rise in the overall surface temperature of our planet. The earth’s average surface temperature is rising unnaturally and frighteningly fast, threatening to snuff out a large number of endangered species- with many plants and animals being undiscovered.

Global Warming and Climatic Change

Global Warming and Climate change are one of the serious most problems associated with us, especially since 1900-2000. It has been noted that, since 1971, about 90% of the increased energy has been accumulated in oceans. But in spite of oceans large storage role, “global warming and climate change” are used to refer to increase in average temperature of air and sea at earth’s surface. The global temperature has risen by about 1°F since beginning of 20th century.

Reasons of global warming and climatic change

• The green house gases which cause pollution are one of the most responsible reasons of global warming and climate change. In fact, air pollution has an adverse affect on the climate. Industries which produce gases such as CO2, CH4, CCl4, NO2, etc. get accumulated in the air.
• These gases are only referred as Green House Gases. They are responsible for the rise in temperature which our scientists fear can bear a long-term change to earth’s climate. These changes may even disgust the survival life on earth. They are said to be factors that adds issues to global warming and climate change.
• Not only humans, but the other forms of life, be it flora or fauna, face a threat in face of global warming and climate change. Hence, it has become the need of hour to root out the cause of global warming and climate change completely to have a bright and better future.

Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases

The green house gases includes CFC-11 & CFC-12 which makes the earth’s surface hotter by absorbing maximum quantity of UV thermal radiations of the sun.

Greenhouse Gases

• They allow the radiations of sun to penetrate and reach the earth’s surface, but do not allow escaping once it enters it, causing greenhouse effect. The rise in temperature even by 1°C can melt the snow at poles, increasing the water level, converting the entire landmass into huge sea.
• After, more than a century & a half of deforestation, industrialization, and large scale agriculture, quantities of greenhouse gases in atmosphere have risen to record levels. The greenhouse effect itself isn’t a bad thing. In fact, earth could never have become warm enough to sustain life without it.
• If would have been used in limited manner, it would be helpful to earth’s climate. Humans have added so dramatically to the atmosphere blanket of greenhouse effect that greenhouse effect that 1st made life possible now threatens the world as we know.

• Another change that global warming has brought about is reduction of forests. Thus, rain has become scanty, salinity of water has increased and even the entire water cycle is disturbed.
• Also, the duration of seasons got affected badly. If the present trend of global temperature rise continues, then it is projected, that by 2030, agriculture could decrease about 30% increasing the risk of malnutrition.
• This drastic & gradual rise in temperature disturbs the rain cycle, the ecological balance, and the cycle of seasons etc, affecting vegetation and agriculture. It also affects the fertility of land making it dry land & deserts.

Adverse Impacts of Global Warming and Climate Change

There is danger of coastal regions drowning due to increase in sea level with the shrinking of glaciers.

• Thus there is a grave danger of an entire civilization becoming extinct in watery grave. Animals and plants are also finding it difficult to handle the situations and live with these global warming and climate change issues.
• The species of both flora & fauna might disappear from the face of earth. Not only this, even the whole Eco cycle is getting affected by issue of global warming. Epidemics are spreading frequently, resulting is disasters and diseases.
• On May 13 2021, it was reported that there is a drastic shift in Antarctic ice sheets and are ready to collapse in any meanwhile time. With big ice sheets spread all over the continent, we have Antarctic winds blowing from the continent surface towards the sea.
• But with the increase in global warming and climate change issues and continents being warmed, the air flow will get barred and winds blowing will take place from cooler sea to warmer surface, bring heavy rainfall to Antarctica. The connection between deep ocean and surface will get disturbed and warm water will get accumulated in the depth.

• Global warming and Climate change are very well known to adversely affect the agricultural and food production. Heavy risks affect the use and productivity of agricultural items leading to debt and no profits to our farmers.
• In the Journal of Our Earth, on May 14 2021, the article related to Climatic affects was published. It stated that “by the end of the century, due to heavy climatic disasters, more than 2/3rd of the current food production will fail leading to no foods.”

However steps are also been taken to have a view on it and good news is only fraction of production will get affected which may be overcome by some remedies.

Steps taken by Various Governments

Governments all over the world are very much concerned about such issues.

• In 1992, the Earth Summit was held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where 150 countries agreed to confront the problem of greenhouse gases. In 1997, in Japan, 160 nations signed an agreement called “ KYOTO PROTOCOL”, that commits state parties to reduce the greenhouse gases emission based on notion that global warming and climate change exists.
• By May, 2011 the number increased to 197. The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (UNCCC), organised by United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change (UNFCC) was organized in Durban, south Africa, where the primary focus was to secure a global climate agreement, “reducing the emission of greenhouse gases up to 5% by 2012”.

• However, the treaty is still awaited to be implemented by developed nations, especially US. The 2019 UN Climate Action Summit was held at headquarters of New York. It focused to bring world leaders together and accelerate the climate action and ambition, reducing the emission of greenhouse gases.
• 60 countries supported this summit with over 4 million participants on “global climate strike”, to pressurize the aim of summit.

Agreements and treaties signed at global level will not only help to reduce affects of global warming and climate change. When the population of nation will understand the seriousness of climate change global warming and climate change, reducing the use of greenhouse gases, then actually result will be shown. Serious and concrete efforts are to be made at national & regional level.

• One such agreement is of Paris Agreement, 2015 which aims to strengthen the global responses and actions towards global warming and climate change by keeping an overall rise of 2°C with industrial levels as well. It also empowers the countries to fight against the impact of climate change and capacity building integrity.

Global Warming & Covid 19

The current situation of “COVID-19”, made the population understand the importance of resources and energy.

• Less use of greenhouse gases and almost 40% industrial use made the climate much stable and filtered to be sustained in. Our climate has been cleaned and filtered by almost 45% since April’20.
• At home and workplaces, electrical and electronic devices are to be used effectively and turned off when not in use. Old and inefficient appliances must be replaced as it consumes lot of energy. Use of paper should be minimized and reuse plastic wastes as much as we can.
• Due to this “Covid-19”, the use of digital platform increased, so we should use mobile notes and various other apps instead of paper for our regular use.
• As we are moving towards our recovery plans from Covid 19, we can think of development of heath, economy, and sustainable developments with help of these plans.

• Covid-19 Responses, a program made by UN Secretary General, aims to propose 6 climate positive actions that will help us in this pandemic situation.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that the ever increasing phenomenon of global warming and climate change would lead to a total extinction of any form of life from earths face. It’s a wakeup call for us to amend the way of lifestyle and limit the use of products that contribute in global warming. Small steps often lead to big changes. It’s high time, that we realize where & how can we reduce our carbon footprints. After all, at present, Earth is the only place where life exists with all the needful gases and water.

We should treat our Earth well, it’s not given us by our parents, it was loaned to us for our children.

 

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Talk to Author: Nikhil Nivedan Vatsa.