Climate Change

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is a significant or abnormal difference in the average weather pattern like Unpredictable seasons, rising sea levels and erratic rainfall, which contribute to floods, droughts and crop failures.

Climate changes will, and already are, affecting every aspect of the hydrologic cycle. The world is getting hotter, leading to rising sea levels, more extreme weather like hurricanes, droughts, and floods, also as other risks to the worldwide climate just like the irreversible collapsing of ice sheets.

• Global warming is the major cause of climate change.

• The pandemic , the fires and accelerating climate change are a stark reminder that our world is out of balance.

• We have caused a climate emergency that gravely threatens nature and life itself, including our own.

• Around 50% of the planet's wild forests are gone. If the trend continues, we will only have 10% left by 2030.

• 800 million people eleven percent of the world's population is currently vulnerable to climate change impacts such as droughts, floods, heat waves and extreme weather events.

Recent project which will result as an effect of climate change :

["China continues to create coal-fired power plants at a rate that outpaces the rest of the planet combined. In 2020, China brought 38.4 gigawatts of latest coal-fired power into operation, quite 3 times what was brought on line everywhere else."]

Now, China is constructing four huge dam over the India’s Brahmaputra river which will cause severe floods at any time in Assam. People living near the Brahmaputra and specially Majuli Island are already lost their livelihoods and houses because of frequent floods. World must stop this.

The role of human activity:

• The well-documented trend of accelerating of CO2 within the atmosphere is said to exponential increases in human population, massive land cover changes and also the burning of fossil fuels.

• The concentration of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere has increased dramatically over the last 150 years, from a pre-industrial era.

• Concentration of roughly 280 parts per million (ppm) to over 410 ppm currently.

• It is extremely likely that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant reason behind the observed warming since the mid-20th century.

• Increasingly intensive agriculture – which emits greenhouse gases like methane and inhalation anesthetic.

• Deforestation – because living trees absorb and store CO2 .

How climate change affects humans and our environment:

• More rain increases mold, fungi, and indoor air pollutants.

• Loss of biodiversity because of limited adaptability and adaptableness speed of flora and fauna.

• More heat can mean longer allergy seasons and more respiratory illness .

• Ocean acidification because of increased HCO3 concentrations within the water as a consequence of increased CO₂ concentrations.

• An increase in hunger and water crises, especially in developing countries.

• An average of 26 million people flee their homes per annum because of climate-related disasters.

NASA GISS Surface Temperature Analysis (GISTEMP v4) trend map of observed global surface temperature change for the period 1979 to 2019. Future global warming depends on Earth's climate sensitivity and our emissions. Credit: NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

Recently, a world research team published a comprehensive review within the journal Reviews of Geophysics on our state of understanding of Earth's "climate sensitivity," a key measure of what proportion our climate will change as greenhouse emission emissions increase. Essentially, by narrowing the range of estimates, the researchers found that climate sensitivity isn’t so low that it should be ignored, but it’s also not so high that there is no hope for the planet’s recovery.

The case studies within the report are composed of three climate adaptation and mitigation initiatives –

(i) Community-led climate adaptation like using salt-tolerant rice for areas with high-salinity, use of mangroves for coastal protection and capture carbon, and use of solar power .

(ii) GHG Mitigation in the Industry. Included here could be a cement manufacturing, and an IT company that sought to scale back its energy consumption and emissions.

(iii) Innovative rainwater harvesting system that can supplement the much-needed water resource by capturing and storing surface runoffs back into their borewells.

There will be no peace within the world without climate justice.

Want clean air to breathe.

Want clean water to drink.

Want clean planet to live.

SAVE THE CLIMATE !
SAVE THE EARTH !

-By Anshika Agarwal