Stop Provoking Planet Earth

Written By: Tanzeela Ahmed

Honestly, we humans are responsible for the caveat signs which are happening from the North Pole to the South Pole and the entire region in between. Human activities are the salient cause of “Global Warming”.

Global warming is the result of increased pollution and emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases concentration act as a blanket, locking the sun’s heat & solar radiations and cause the planet to warm.

We must understand that the balance is the essence of earth stability and excessive greenhouse gases discharge is provoking the ecosystem equilibrium. We all are suffering from hotter days and nights, increased air pollution and changed pattern of rainfalls and snow.

Our Planet is heating up at very faster rate than ever before. Average temperature of planet earth is rising day by day. Temperature rise is vulnerable for natural environment and for world’s climate.

Excessive use of technology, electronic gadgets, oozing of greenhouse gases, pollution, cutting of plants is collectively leading towards climate change at an alarming rate.

In today’s world climate change is the biggest global health threat mainly for children, elderly and for those who are easily prone to allergies, infection diseases and asthma.

Climate change is the potential threat to the water supplies as well. Be ready to meet scarcity of water within next few years. Future shortage of water will affect food production, accessibility of drinking water, sanitation dearth and blemished ecosystem.

Extreme warm climate craft an atmosphere that collect, retain and plunge more water and let the wet areas become damper and dry areas desiccated.

Let’s have a look at what activities are causing global warming, what price we are paying because of it and how we can play our role to slow down climate change. 

Causes of Global Warming

• Burning of fossil fuels (coal, gasoline, natural gas) for generating electricity release massive amount of CO2 into the atmosphere.
• Decay of food, vegetation and paper wastage deserted in landfills releases carbon dioxide and methane.
• Industrial processes like cement production, liquid natural gas creation, coal mining etc are also accountable to produce and emit variety of greenhouse gases.
• Deforestation – Cutting of wood for commercial and household consumption. Plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. The act of deforestation let the stored carbon to convert back into carbon dioxide.
• Burning gasoline from transports.
• Concentrated livestock production leads to the release of methane in the atmosphere. Methane is one of the extremely potent greenhouse gases.
• Chemical fertilizers intensive use for cropland. Nitrogen rich fertilizers effect on the heat storage ability of the cropland.

Outcomes of Global Warming

• Increase in intensity of severe storms, hurricanes, cyclones and dust storms.
• Coastal flooding as a result of rising sea levels, melting glaciers and ice sheets.
• Longer and destructive wildfire – Because of hotter and dried climate.
• Intense and frequent heat waves – That are posing serious health risks, heat exhaustion and heat strokes.
• Widespread forest death
• Severe droughts in certain regions of the world
• Widespread extinction of species
• Rise in sea levels worldwide – surface of occasions is rising due to excessive heat.
• Change in seasons – winter is very short, summer is prolonged, spring arrives early, and snow melts early too. It’s changing the animal and plants behavior and many species wouldn’t be able to survive in the long run.
• Disrupt food supply may lead to starvation, driving the cost of food production high.

What we can do?

We need to take drastic corrective measurements in order to save our motherland for us and for coming generations. Yes, together we can bring a halt to global warming. What can make difference is to diminish the emission of greenhouse gases. We can do little yet impactful deeds at personal level to cope with global warming.

Clean and renewable energy resource. Discourage extensive fossil fuels burning for electricity generation. The best option is the deployment of environment friendly solar panels.

Blaze less gasoline by driving fuel-efficient cars. Though such cars are expensive as compared to their low profile counterparts but when it’s about environment make no compromise.

Preserve energy. The most profound solution to climate change is to save as much energy as we can. Plug off electric devices and chargers when not in use. Never leave them at standby mode, especially before stepping out of home. Practice to turning off unnecessary lights and replace the ordinary light bulbs with energy-savers.

Plant trees on regular basis and facilitate “Photosynthesis”. An acre of grown up trees have ability to supply oxygen enough for 18 persons and absorb as much CO2 as produced by a car when we drive it 26,000 miles. Moreover trees have miraculous potency to purify polluted air, decelerate water evaporation and climate change.

Go for energy-efficient appliances that curtail electricity consumption. We can compress electricity bill while being environment friendly.

Drive less and smart. Evade unnecessary driving. Prefer public transport and carpool/sharing. Don’t forget to switch off car’s engine while getting out of it to fetch something.

Reduce waste and recycle anything you can. Don’t straight away trash used containers. Keep the environment clean and reuse the plastic bottles, cans, cartons etc as much as possible.

Conserve water. Be ecosystem and society friendly. Recoil from water wastage and therefore save energy as water is pumped by employing electric pump/motor.