SIMPLE ACTIONS TO COMBAT GLOBAL WARMING

 Everyone can help limit climate change. From the way we travel, to the electricity we use and the food we eat, we can make a difference. 

“Change only happens when individuals take action,” Aliya Haq, deputy director of NRDC’s Clean Power Plan initiative, says. “There’s no other way, if it doesn’t start with people.”

The goal is simple. Carbon dioxide is the climate’s worst enemy. It’s released when oil, coal, and other fossil fuels are burned for energy—the energy we use to power our homes, cars, and smartphones. By using less of it, we can curb our own contribution to climate change while also saving money. Here are a some easy, effective ways each one of us can make a difference:

1. Save energy at home/workplace 

• Most of our electricity and heat is powered by coal, oil and gas. 
• Use less energy by lowering your heating and cooling, switching to LED light bulbs and energy-efficient electric appliances, washing your laundry with cold water or hanging things to dry instead of using a dryer.
• Power your home/workplace with renewable energy like wind/solar energy. 
• Invest in energy efficient appliances making sure also to save water.
• Conserve energy by better insulating our homes and buildings, and by replacing old, failing appliances with more energy-efficient models.
• Call a home energy audit company and get an audit done for the home that will help you to identify areas that consume a lot of energy and are not energy efficient at all.

2. Walk, cycle or use public transport

• Walking or riding a bike instead of driving will reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and help your health and fitness. For longer distances, consider taking a train or bus. And carpool whenever possible.
• Gas-smart cars, such as hybrids and fully electric vehicles, save fuel and money
• Choosing to live in walkable smart-growth cities and towns with quality public transportation leads to less driving, less money spent on fuel, and less pollution in the air.
• Less frequent flying can make a big difference, too.
• Avoid rapid acceleration and braking, and turn on cruise control on longer trips
• Not only is bike riding healthy, but it also reduces the amount of CO2 released into the air. Walking is another easy way to reduce global warming.
• Working a few days each month from home means one less commuter on the road contributing to greenhouse gases.

3. Eat more vegetables 

• Eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, and less meat and dairy, can significantly lower your environmental impact. 
• Producing plant-based foods generally results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires less energy, land and water.
• Besides carbon dioxide, methane introduced into the air contributes to global warming. With meat consumed by the seconds, the number of cows breathing out methane is a huge contributor.

4. Avoid throwing food 

• When you throw food away, you're also wasting the resources and energy that were used to grow, produce, package and transport it. And when food rots in a landfill, it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. So use what you buy and compost any leftovers.

5. Reduce, Reuse, Repair & Recycle 

• Electronics, clothes and other items we buy cause carbon emissions at each point in production, from the extraction of raw materials to manufacturing and transporting goods to market. 
• To protect our climate, buy fewer things, shop second-hand, repair what you can and recycle.
• Landfills already contain more than 2 million tons of plastic bottles. It takes 1.5 million barrels of oil to manufacture water bottles every year, and those bottles take more than 1,000 years to biodegrade. Have one reusable water bottle to make a big difference.
• Reuse towels. Hang towels to dry, instead of popping them back in the wash after a few uses.

6. Change your source of energy 

• See if you can switch to renewable sources such as wind or solar. Or install solar panels on your roof to generate energy for your home.
• LED lightbulbs use up to 80 percent less energy than conventional incandescents. They’re also cheaper in the long run.
• You can offset the carbon you produce by purchasing carbon offsets, which represent clean power that you can add to the nation’s energy grid in place of power from fossil fuels. But not all carbon offset companies are alike. Do your homework to find the best supplier.

7. Speak up!

• By voicing your concerns you send a message that you care about the warming world.
• Always try your best to educate people about global warming and its causes and after-effects. Tell them how they can contribute their part by saving energy that will be good for the environment. Gather opportunities and establish programs that will help you to share information with friends, relatives, and neighbors.

8. Reduce water waste 

• Saving water reduces carbon pollution, too. That's because it takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water. So take shorter showers, turn off the tap while brushing your teeth, and switch to WaterSense-labeled fixtures and appliances. 

9. Pull the plug(s) 

• Don't leave fully charged devices plugged into your home's outlets, unplug rarely used devices or plug them into power strips and timers, and adjust your computers and monitors to automatically power down to the lowest power mode when not in use.

10. Plant trees

• Reforestation is the most cost-effective way to prevent global warming. Trees absorb carbon dioxide, so planting more trees can help reduce the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. In fact, we could remove roughly two-thirds of human-made carbon just by letting all forests regrow. 
• Protect what remains of our existing tropical forests .

11. Educate 

• Give to a charity that makes school more affordable and accessible for those in need in low- and lower-middle-income countries. 
• Always try your best to educate people about global warming and its causes and after-effects. Tell them how they can contribute their part by saving energy that will be good for the environment. Gather opportunities and establish programs that will help you to share information with friends, relatives, and neighbors.

12. Avoid products with a lot of packaging

• Just don’t buy products with a lot of packaging. When you buy such products, you will end up throwing the waste material in the garbage, which then will help in filling landfill sites and pollute the environment. Also, discourage others from buying such products.

13. Celebrate Arbor Day & Earth Day 

• Although most of us hear about these days in passing, see what the buzz is all about. Plant a tree, pick up trash, or join a forum.

14. Become aware of your contribution 

• With technology within your fingertips, finding information about protecting the environment is everywhere. To help emit less CO2, the first step is being aware of how much you can contribute.

Preventing global warming is more important than ever. We're the last generation that can change the course of climate change, and will be the first to face it's consequences if we don't act now. 

Here are some of the suggestions from our Instagram family:

@breathenmoments -

" Gratitude for what we already have. As we all have much abundance in our day to day lives we don't see."

"More awareness when using our resources. Try less first before using more."

@sabri_farouq -

"Tree planting" 

@blue_earth_organization -

"Planting lots of trees, Zero waste, Switch to reusables."

@real_rizwana -

"Make sure your surroundings are clean and taken care of." 

@legacy_mall -

"Plant trees (all species)"

@its_winnie_cheche -

"Grow indigenous trees, shrubs and other vegetation cover."

@mentor_quresha -

"Planting more trees"

@aisha_bagha -

"Save energy at home."

"Plant more trees" 

@ahmed.sheikh.589 -

"Plant trees & harvest water." 

@_nussy_ -

"Help to protect & conserve green spaces like local parks and community gardens." 

@sumaiyaharunany -

"So manyyy ; Plant a tree. Reuse, reduce, recycle."

"Segregate waste. Unplug devices at night . Ditch single use plastic."

REFERENCES:

• https://www.un.org/actnow
• https://www.conserve-energy-future.com/

TEMPERATURE RISE

 Introduction

Over the last 50 years, human activities – particularly the burning of fossil fuels – have released sufficient quantities of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to trap additional heat in the lower atmosphere and affect the global climate.

In the last 130 years, the world has warmed by approximately 0.85oC. Each of the last 3 decades has been successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850

 The planet is warming, from North Pole to South Pole.  And the impacts of rising temperatures aren’t waiting for some far-flung future–the effects of global warming are appearing right now. The heat is melting glaciers and sea ice, shifting precipitation patterns, and setting animals on the move. Sea levels are rising, glaciers are melting and precipitation patterns are changing. Extreme weather events are becoming more intense and frequent.

The Past & The Future

The 10 warmest years on record have all occurred since 2005, and 7 of the 10 have occurred just since 2014. Looking back to 1988, a pattern emerges: except for 2011, as each new year is added to the historical record, it becomes one of the top 10 warmest on record at that time, but it is ultimately replaced as the “top ten” window shifts forward in time.

By 2020, models project that global surface temperature will be more than 0.5°C (0.9°F) warmer than the 1986-2005 average, regardless of which carbon dioxide emissions pathway the world follows. This similarity in temperatures regardless of total emissions is a short-term phenomenon: it reflects the tremendous inertia of Earth's vast oceans. The high heat capacity of water means that ocean temperature doesn't react instantly to the increased heat being trapped by greenhouse gases. By 2030, however, the heating imbalance caused by greenhouse gases begins to overcome the oceans' thermal inertia, and projected temperature pathways begin to diverge, with unchecked carbon dioxide emissions likely leading to several additional degrees of warming by the end of the century.

" 2019 among the three warmest years on record" 

Many characteristics of climate change directly depend on the level of global warming, but what people experience is often very different to the global average. For example, warming over land is larger than the global average, and it is more than twice as high in the Arctic.

But it is not just about temperature. Climate change is bringing multiple different changes in different regions – which will all increase with further warming. These include changes to wetness and dryness, to winds, snow and ice, coastal areas and oceans. For example:

• Climate change is intensifying the water cycle. This brings more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions.
• Climate change is affecting rainfall patterns. In high latitudes, precipitation is likely to increase, while it is projected to decrease over large parts of the subtropics. Changes to monsoon precipitation are expected, which will vary by region.
• Coastal areas will see continued sea level rise throughout the 21st century, contributing to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-lying areas and coastal erosion. Extreme sea level events that previously occurred once in 100 years could happen every year by the end of this century.
• Further warming will amplify permafrost thawing, and the loss of seasonal snow cover, melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and loss of summer Arctic sea ice.
• Changes to the ocean, including warming, more frequent marine heatwaves, ocean acidification, and reduced oxygen levels have been clearly linked to human influence. These changes affect both ocean ecosystems and the people that rely on them, and they will continue throughout at least the rest of this century.
• For cities, some aspects of climate change may be amplified, including heat (since urban areas are usually warmer than their surroundings), flooding from heavy precipitation events and sea level rise in coastal cities.

Impact of Temperature Rise 

• Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. In Montana's Glacier National Park the number of glaciers has declined to fewer than 30 from more than 150 in 1910.
• Much of this melting ice contributes to sea-level rise. Global sea levels are rising 0.13 inches (3.2 millimeters) a year, and the rise is occurring at a faster rate in recent years.
• Rising temperatures are affecting wildlife and their habitats. Vanishing ice has challenged species such as the Adélie penguin in Antarctica, where some populations on the western peninsula have collapsed by 90 percent or more.
• As temperatures change, many species are on the move. Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have migrated farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation (rain and snowfall) has increased across the globe, on average. Yet some regions are experiencing more severe drought, increasing the risk of wildfires, lost crops, and drinking water shortages.
• Some species—including mosquitoes, ticks, jellyfish, and crop pests—are thriving. Booming populations of bark beetles that feed on spruce and pine trees, for example, have devastated millions of forested acres in the U.S.

Other effects could take place later this century, if warming continues. These include:

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 10 and 32 inches (26 and 82 centimeters) or higher by the end of the century.
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger. Floods and droughts will become more common. Large parts of the U.S., for example, face a higher risk of decades-long "megadroughts" by 2100.
• Less freshwater will be available, since glaciers store about three-quarters of the world's freshwater.
• Some diseases will spread, such as mosquito-borne malaria (and the 2016 resurgence of the Zika virus).
• Ecosystems will continue to change: Some species will move farther north or become more successful; others, such as polar bears, won’t be able to adapt and could become extinct.

REFERENCES: 

• USGCRP, 2017: Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume I [Wuebbles, D.J., D.W. Fahey, K.A. Hibbard, D.J. Dokken, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock (eds.)]. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, USA, 470 pp., doi: 10.7930/J0J964J6.
• NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, State of the Climate: Global Climate Report for Annual 2020, online January 2021, retrieved on March 15, 2021 from https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/global/202013.
•  IPCC, 2014: Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change.
• who.int/
• https://www.nationalgeographic.com/
• https://www.ipcc.ch/

EVIDENCE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

 In this chapter we will look at how to know the effects of climate change. How do we know that the climate is changing. We shall just browse through some of the scientific evidence. 

Direct observations made on and above Earth’s surface show the planet’s climate is significantly changing. Human activities are the primary driver of those changes.

Earth's climate has changed throughout history. Just in the last 650,000 years there have been seven cycles of glacial advance and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era — and of human civilization.

1. GLOBAL TEMPERATURE RISE 

The planet's average surface temperature has risen about 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit (1.18 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century, a change driven largely by increased carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere and other human activities. Most of the warming occurred in the past 40 years, with the seven most recent years being the warmest. The years 2016 and 2020 are tied for the warmest year on record.

2. WARMING OCEAN 

The ocean has absorbed much of this increased heat, with the top 100 meters (about 328 feet) of ocean showing warming of more than 0.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.33 degrees Celsius) since 1969. Earth stores 90% of the extra energy in the ocean.

3. SHRINKING ICE SHEETS 

The Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have decreased in mass. Data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment show Greenland lost an average of 279 billion tons of ice per year between 1993 and 2019, while Antarctica lost about 148 billion tons of ice per year.

4. GLACIAL RETREAT 

Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world — including in the Alps, Himalayas, Andes, Rockies, Alaska, and Africa.

5. DECREASED SNOW COVER 

Satellite observations reveal that the amount of spring snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere has decreased over the past five decades and the snow is melting earlier.

6. SEA LEVEL RISE 

Global sea level rose about 8 inches (20 centimeters) in the last century. The rate in the last two decades, however, is nearly double that of the last century and accelerating slightly every year.

7. DECLINING ARCTIC SEA ICE 

Both the extent and thickness of Arctic sea ice has declined rapidly over the last several decades.

8. EXTREME NATURAL EVENTS 

Increase in natural disasters each year.

9. OCEAN ACIDIFICATION 

Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the acidity of surface ocean waters has increased by about 30%. This increase is the result of humans emitting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and hence more being absorbed into the ocean. The ocean has absorbed between 20% and 30% of total anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions in recent decades (7.2 to 10.8 billion metric tons per year).

The evidence of climate change is overwhelming, urging us to climate action. Here are some of the opinions from our Instagram & Facebook family: 

FACEBOOK

Sprut Krankle  - 

"The Sahara going green."

Prachi Jain  -

" 16% above expected levels, forest wildfires, rains."

INSTAGRAM 

@_real_rizwana - 

"Unpredictable weather."

@_nussy_ -

"Global temperatures rise, warming ocean, decreased snow cover, glacial retreat & ocean acidification."

@sumaiyaharunani - 

" So many!!! Wildfires, drought, typhoons, ice on Kilimajaro is almost over. Heat waves, intense drought, rise of sea levels, melting glaciers, extreme weather conditions. "

@its_winnie_cheche - 

"Floods and droughts."

@breathenmoments -

"Increased erratic weather."

@blue_earth_organization -

"Rise in sea levels, abrupt change in weather patterns."

@dafina_bread -

"No rain. Prolonged drought. "

@zainab_akadir -

"Temperature fluctuation and melting of ice peaks."

REFERENCES:

• https://climate.nasa.gov/
• Vostok ice core data; NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 record
• Gaffney, O.; Steffen, W. (2017). "The Anthropocene equation," The Anthropocene Review (Volume 4, Issue 1, April 2017), 53-61.
• https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/monitoring-references/faq/indicators.php
• https://crudata.uea.ac.uk/cru/data/temperature/​
• http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp
• https://www.nodc.noaa.gov/OC5/3M_HEAT_CONTENT/index3.html
• National Snow and Ice Data Center
• World Glacier Monitoring Service
• National Snow and Ice Data Center
• R. S. Nerem, B. D. Beckley, J. T. Fasullo, B. D. Hamlington, D. Masters and G. T. Mitchum. "Climate-change–driven accelerated sea-level rise detected in the altimeter era." PNAS, 2018 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1717312115
• http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/co2/story/What+is+Ocean+Acidification%3F

CAUSES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Geological records show that there have been a number of large variations in the Earth’s climate. These have been caused by many natural factors, including changes in the sun, emissions from volcanoes, variations in Earth’s orbit and levels of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Global climate change has typically occurred very slowly, over thousands or millions of years. However, research shows that the current climate is changing more rapidly than shown in geological records.

The mechanics of the earth’s climate system are simple. When energy from the sun is reflected off the earth and back into space (mostly by clouds and ice), or when the earth’s atmosphere releases energy, the planet cools. When the earth absorbs the sun’s energy, or when atmospheric gases prevent heat released by the earth from radiating into space (the greenhouse effect), the planet warms.

 A variety of factors, both natural and human, can influence the earth’s climate system.

The main driver of climate change is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural process that warms the Earth’s surface. When the Sun’s energy reaches the Earth’s atmosphere, some of it is reflected back to space and the rest is absorbed and re-radiated by greenhouse gases.

Some gases in the Earth's atmosphere act a bit like the glass in a greenhouse, trapping the sun's heat and stopping it from leaking back into space and causing global warming.

Many of these greenhouse gases occur naturally, but human activity is increasing the concentrations of some of them in the atmosphere, in particular:

• carbon dioxide (CO2)
• methane
• nitrous oxide
• fluorinated gases

NATURAL CAUSES

• Sun's Intensity
• Volcanic Eruptions 
• Changes in Earth's Orbit, Axial Tilt & Precession 
• Quality of Greenhouse Gases in the Atmosphere
• Ocean Currents 
• Changes in Land Cover
• Meteorites Impact

CAUSES FOR RISING EMISSIONS ( HUMAN INDUCED) 

• Burning coal, oil and gas produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide.
• Cutting down forests (deforestation). Trees help to regulate the climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. When they are cut down, that beneficial effect is lost and the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere, adding to the greenhouse effect.
• Increasing livestock farming. Cows and sheep produce large amounts of methane when they digest their food.
• Fertilizers containing nitrogen produce nitrous oxide emissions.
• Fluorinated gases are emitted from equipment and products that use these gases. Such emissions have a very strong warming effect, up to 23 000 times greater than CO2.

Thank you to all those who responded to our question on our social media platforms. Here are some of the answers we got as being causes of climate change: 

eaglewingorganization (Instagram)-

"Human activities are the leading causes of climate change...from deforestation to make a living, improper use of fertilisers especially those containing nitrogen, burning coal and use of gas emitting devices."

earthlab (Instagram) -

"Climate change is a combination of natural factors and human activities."

Amina Shah (Whatsapp)- 

"Our own actions. We burn the forest and we don't plant back, we create a lot of plastic items, we manufacture harsh chemicals which in turn affect the lands and the oceans, the list is endless." 

https://linktr.ee/theseedoflifefoundation