This is earth the planet and our solar system that we live on
however our planet is not on a good path for continuing to sustain life the earth is facing the accelerating detrimental effects of climate change also referred to as global warming well what exactly is climate change climate change is defined as a long term change in the Earth's overall temperature with massive and permanent ramifications climate scientists believe that this isn't caused naturally by the earth but by human activity Earth's atmosphere consists of gases such as oxygen and nitrogen and other gases known as greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide nitrous oxide and methane incoming light from the Sun hits the Earth's surface the earth absorbs some of that energy heating the surface of the planet the rest of that energy gets reflected some of that energy goes back on into space the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide trap the energy and send it right back to the Earth's surface heating it up even more this is known as the greenhouse effect now a little greenhouse effect is natural to the earth and is a good thing to have but a large greenhouse effect can be catastrophic causing a lot of that energy to stay in our atmosphere and heat up the earth at an accelerating rate some of the main human activity that amidst greenhouse gases are fossil fuel burning animals agriculture and deforestation and waste and recycle pollution burning fossil fuels like coal oil and natural gas as well as gasoline for some of the largest pollutants of carbon emissions not only that but when fossil fuels are burnt and their gas is mixed with heat they create smog a thick air pollutant that is highly toxic for example beijing smog is so thick and heavy that you can't go outside without some form of surgical masks or breathing filter the massive amounts of excrement produced by livestock farms emit toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide ammonia and methane into the air methane is 23 times more effective at methane is 23 times more trapping heat than co2 and roughly 80% of these emissions in the u.s. come from animal waste over 56 billion animals are globally raised every year for food purposes that's eight times more than the human population and eight times as much waste adding emissions to our atmosphere land used for growing animal feed and raising animals for food used a staggering 30% of the Earth's landmass in 2006 and the food production industry has only increased since 7 football fields worth of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals in the crops that feed them bulldozing land and deforestation not only emits greenhouse gases but it gets rid of plants trees and forests the things on our planet that actually absorb carbon dioxide the more we Deforest our earth the less carbon dioxide it can absorb from our atmosphere solid waste landfills are some of the largest pollutants of methane gas in the United States the average person produces 4.3 pounds of trash per day that's 1569 pounds of trash per year for one person with the 7 plus billion people that live on the globe that's eleven point six trillion pounds of trash dumped into landfills every year but how do we know that our human activity is the cause of accelerated climate change and not the Earth's natural process our civilizations produced a devastating 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide last year which equals 700 trillion cubic feet of co2 that's a little more than 100 Mount Everest of co2 it's enough co2 to fill the entire Grand Canyon five times or it's the equivalent of 19 million Empire State building's the largest natural pollutant of the earth are volcanoes if we take the largest scientific estimate of carbon emissions produced by volcanoes every year that's 500 million tons of volcanic co2 but that's not even 2% of the nearly 40 billion tons of co2 that our civilizations produced over the course of thousands of years our climate goes to a natural climate cycle of carbon dioxide being absorbed and released into the atmosphere but once the Industrial Revolution kicked in burning fossil fuels became the necessity of manufacture and production plants and the co2 level shot up violently have not slowed down since the earth has not seen this much carbon dioxide in atmosphere for millions of years our planet with the greenhouse effect is like a bathtub being filled with more water than it can drain eventually it will fill up with more than it can handle but why should we care about global warming and climate increasing the earth's temperature has risen 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the past century and is projected to rise another 0.5 to eight point six degrees Fahrenheit over the next 100 years animals and plant life are struggling to adapt to these conditions for survival if even one species goes extinct it can create a domino effect with the food chain no living plants or animals means no living humans rising temperatures makes the Earth's oceans become warmer which causes something known as ocean acidification which arises the acid levels in the oceans from the carbon dioxide reacting with the salt water ocean acidification harms animal life and is what's causing the death of the Great Barrier Reef this is a problem because about 1 billion people use ocean life as their main source of protein since the oceans are becoming warmer the polar ice caps are melting which has caused almost 65 percent of the polar ice caps to melt since 1979 the earth loses on average 400 billion tons of ice each year that's like a giant block of ice 4 miles long on each side 64 cubic miles that melts and is added to the ocean the oceans filled with too much water in the Shores like in Louisiana can't hold all that water and coastal regions get flooded and destroyed climate change also causes more frequent and intense natural disasters such as hurricanes floods tornadoes heat waves and droughts so the question is how do we stop this instead of burning fossil fuels we need to convert to renewable energy such as solar and wind power which he met zero carbon emissions when operating energy from the Sun and the wind are infinite unlike fossil fuels we will never run out of them more solar energy falls on the earth in one hour than all the energy that our civilizations consume in one year civil engineers from the solutions project calculated that we could power most of the world with only renewable energy if we just actually decided to do it if we cut back on people or station not only does that reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned but there will be more plants and forests actively absorbing carbon dioxide if we use more reusable and renewable resources this will reduce the amount of energy needed to create new products this will also reduce the massive amount of landfill dumping that we do that all sounds like great efficient and healthy ideas but how can I help personally right now you can drive an electric or fuel-efficient car replacing your regular car with the Toyota Prius the average person can prevent the emission of about one tonne of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere now we all can't afford to just buy new in different cars so to help you can walk or bike places take public transportation or if anything ease off the accelerator and make your car as efficient as possible use energy-efficient lightbulbs led lightbulbs use only a fraction of the power of incandescent lightbulbs air dry your clothes instead of using power guzzling machine like dryers turn off electronics or lights when you're not using them eat less meat or no meat at all by replacing an omnivorous diet with a vegan diet the average person can prevent the emission of about 1.5 tons of co2 into the atmosphere reduce reuse recycle and of course spread your knowledge and concerns of climate change remember climate change is very real and is drastically affecting planet earth our home and although we are the problem we can also be the solution.
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