Global Warming
The wellbeing of humanity isn’t about financial prosperity, it’s about people living respectfully and responsibly with the world around them.
The economics of earning a livelihood and providing for a family is the driving force that changes the world around us. For both good and bad, and in every country, people and businesses consume resources on a daily basis to earn enough to buy food and pay their living expenses, and hopefully to position themselves to retire when they’re no longer able to work.
Global Warming is caused by how people use resources. By burning fossil fuels and harvesting natural carbon sinks like forests, the earth’s temperature has been increasing at a rate that could eventually pose a hazard to life on earth as we’ve known it. Although it may not seem like much, earth’s average global temperature has increased 1.9 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, according to the NASA Earth Observatory. Scientists predict the effects of global warming will be irreversible if temperatures increase 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels.
The consequences of global warming include extreme weather heatwaves, droughts, floods, forest fires, and hurricanes; rising sea levels that may devastate seaside communities and force residents to relocate; plant and animal loss making ecosystems more susceptible to invasive pests and diseases; famine due to a lack of arable land; and economic, health, mortality, and mental health problems across the globe. Warming sea surface temperatures not only increase the likelihood of hurricanes, they also have the effect of slowing down the ocean’s natural currents, affecting weather patterns and atmospheric circulation, which is like turning off the earth’s air conditioner.
It’s important to note that temperature fluctuations from century to century are completely normal. Climatology is the science that documents historical changes in weather patterns over time. During the ice age, temperatures on earth were quite a bit cooler than they are now. If you lived in California at that time you could walk all the way to where the Channel Islands are located now. Over the last 485 million years, earth has also been considerably warmer at times, covering entire continents with sea water and reshaping shorelines all over the globe, which is the direction we’re headed today. The increase in our planet’s temperature over the last few decades is particularly concerning to scientists because it’s happened at a pace that exceeds a natural explanation, and that is what scientists are calling global warming.
Global warming is primarily caused by greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses trap heat in the environment by preventing the sun’s energy from leaving the earth, similar to how a thick blanket keeps you warm. The most common greenhouse gasses are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gasses. Aerosols, ozone, and water vapor can also impact the climate.
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide comprise about 97% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with carbon dioxide accounting for a whopping 79.7% of the total. Carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere through the burning of fossil fuels and organic matter such as solid waste and forests. Methane is emitted into the environment through the production of fossil fuels and decaying organic livestock waste, and nitrous oxide is emitted into the environment through fossil fuel combustion, industrial activities, and wastewater treatment. Greenhouse gasses remain in the environment anywhere from a few years to thousands.
Carbon is one of the most common elements in the universe. It is an essential building block that makes all life possible on earth, comprising and regulating cells in the human body. About 12% of the atoms in the human body are carbon. In a pure form, carbon is found in nature as diamonds, graphite, coal, and petroleum products. Carbon is actually named after coal.
Carbon bonds well with many elements, most notoriously with two oxygen atoms to create carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas we’re most concerned about today. Human activity has raised the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment 50% since pre-industrialization, a rate faster than at any other time in earth’s studied history.
Continuing to emit carbon dioxide and greenhouse gasses would make life on earth as we’ve known it uninhabitable. But we have the opportunity to change our fate if we make a timely effort to considerably limit our reliance on fossil fuels, including eliminating activities that reduce carbon capture like cutting down trees. Designing vehicles, ships and planes that run on electricity or hydrogen will reduce our carbon footprint. Building communities with solar panels provide enough energy to power homes and appliances, eliminating the need to rely on coal plants to generate electricity.
Energy conservation and capture are also ways to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the environment. Societies that learn to use less of a resource that causes greenhouse gasses will make a difference. Capturing and storing carbon dioxide underground is an option. Protecting forests and oceans, the two greatest carbon dioxide sinks on earth, should be a governmental prerogative. Educating businesses, providing incentives for substantially limiting the amount of greenhouse gas a business may produce, perhaps similar to California’s cap and trade program, and litigating irresponsible behavior on a macro scale are ways to fundamentally reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions contributing to global warming.
We need to change our laws to create positive change. Governments came together in 1989 at the Montreal Protocol and agreed to ban chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in an attempt to heal the ozone layer, and it worked! The ozone layer is currently healing itself now, and by 2045 could reach a full recovery. Society can create positive change when necessary, and we can do the same thing with global warming. It’s not too late.
Oh, by the way, there is absolutely nothing clean about nuclear power. Although nuclear power doesn’t emit carbon into the environment, it creates one of the most toxic wastes known to mankind, a waste that could take a lifetime or longer to decompose. All nuclear energy does in a nuclear power plant is move giant turbines that generate electrical power, similar to how a dam functions. It makes absolutely no sense to create a waste that is literally impossible to dispose of responsibly to generate electricity, particularly when much healthier alternatives like solar, wind, and green hydrogen power are available.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way…
Brett Bridgman
Doo Dah Apparel LLC
