You and I can help control global warming5 min read

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Vivaan Taneja

Kunskapsskolan, Gurgaon

Class 8

We all already know that global warming is a very ‘hot’ topic these days.

But first let me tell you a little something about it—

What is Global Warming?

Global Warming is climate change, or the general increase and decrease of the average temperature of the earth caused by greenhouse gases entering from the atmosphere. This can lead to natural disasters, forest fires, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves etc.  All of this imbalance can lead to more severe weather conditions, including storms, heat waves, floods etc.

We are already seeing effects of it these days with unprecedented heat waves in North America, floods in various parts of the world and in Europe more recently.

What causes it?

These natural disasters combined with harmful gas escaping from factories, fireplaces, cars such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide and chlorofluorocarbons aggravates the problem. Did you know that these gases can also melt and separate icebergs from the Arctic, which raise the sea level severely? When we burn fossil fuels like coal, and gas to create electricity or power our cars, we release CO₂ into the atmosphere. This is very harmful for us human beings and can lead to lung problems, respiration dysfunction, heart diseases and even cancer.

Trees can counter these gases and produce oxygen, but due to excess deforestation, even trees have started giving out more carbon dioxide than oxygen. Wait, that doesn’t sound right but it is. When trees are cut down and burnt, their carbon is released in the air as carbon dioxide (Read: Something strange is brewing in the Amazon rainforests)

Did you know that even watching Netflix adds to global warming?
Read: Is Netflix Adding to your Carbon Footprint)

How does nature help?

Plants and trees play an important role in regulating the climate because they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen back into the air. New ways are being worked on to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from trees by trapping CO₂ inside forests  so the trees can absorb it and throw out more oxygen.

Plants need carbon dioxide for photosynthesis.

How can we help?

Now what can we do about this daunting problem? Nothing, right?
Well of course we can!

By reducing the amount of carbon dioxide, methane and other green house gases in the atmosphere we can help combat climate change and sea level rise (Read: How Big is your Carbon Footprint?)

Just by incorporating simple things, we can help reduce global warming

·         Driving less and cycling more
·         Avoid products with a lot of packaging
·         Use both sides of paper/ recycle paper to make envelopes
·         Plant as many trees as possible
·         Power our homes with renewable energy
·         Adjust computers and monitors to power down to the lowest power mode
·         Shut down electronic items not in use.

What’s new in the news?

Did you know that scientists and researchers have been working on innovative projects to reduce global warming, and reduce the sea level with that too? Using Solar power is one of them!

Solar panels are sun tracking panels that face the sun all day and absorb more energy.

Solar power can help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. It guarantees no wastage and is cost effective. Also, solar panels can provide for the electricity needs of an entire home. Scientists have been working on solar panels to decrease the cost so more people can buy it.

15 islands made of more than 70,000 solar panels are being built in the Netherlands.

A new invention is underway where researchers are trying to reverse the effect of ice-melt by creating artificial ice and spraying it in Antarctica. One such idea has come from an Indonesian designer of a floating machine like a submarine which when put into a water body and turned on, allows water to fill its large hexagonal well, removes the salt from the water and converts water into icebergs and throws it back into the ocean. This will help to gradually reverse the effect of global warming as it will reflect more heat than absorbing it.

Such innovative ideas will help sustain us.

I hope you all learnt something out of this article, and that we should all join hands and work together to beat this bandit known as Climate change.

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