Humans, primarily the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by human activities, are the primary cause of today’s rapidly changing climate. Greenhouse gases are vital in keeping the world warm enough for humans to live on. However, in recent decades, the number of these gases in our atmosphere has increased dramatically.
Sources of Pollution:
The primary source of human-generated emissions is the combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas for electricity, heat, and transportation. Deforestation is a second big source, as it releases sequestered (or stored) carbon into the atmosphere. Logging, clearcutting, fires, and other kinds of forest degradation are thought to emit an average of 8.1 billion metric tonnes of CO2 each year, accounting for more than 20% of all CO2 emissions worldwide.
Fertilizer use (a major source of nitrous oxide emissions), livestock raising (cattle, buffalo, sheep, and goats are important methane emitters), and some industrial processes that create fluorinated gases are all examples of human activities that pollute the air. Agriculture and road building can alter the reflectance of the earth’s surface, resulting in a decrease in visibility. Agriculture and road building, for example, can alter the reflectance of the earth’s surface, resulting in local warming or cooling.
Despite the fact that our planet’s woods and seas absorb greenhouse gases from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and other processes, they are unable to keep up with our escalating emissions. As a result of the buildup of greenhouse gases, the earth is warming at an alarmingly rapid rate. During the twentieth century, the earth’s average temperature rose by around 1 degree Fahrenheit. If you don’t think that’s a lot, consider this: Average temperatures were just 5 to 9 degrees cooler than they are now when the last ice age ended and the northeastern United States was buried by more than 3,000 feet of ice.
How do Humans contribute?
By emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, humans contribute to climate change. More carbon dioxide is present in the atmosphere today than it has been in at least the last 2 million years. Carbon dioxide levels increased by 40% between the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
We emit greenhouse gases in a variety of ways:
Burning fossil fuels – Fossil fuels like oil, gas, and coal contain carbon dioxide that has been ‘locked away’ for thousands of years in the ground. We release the stored carbon dioxide into the air when we remove these off the land and burn them.
Deforestation – Forests extract and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, therefore deforestation is a problem. Because there are no trees to absorb carbon dioxide, it builds up faster when they are cut down. Furthermore, when we burn trees, the carbon they hold is released.
What Are The Solutions?
Human actions such as burning fossil fuels and deforestation are having an increasingly negative impact on the climate and the Earth’s temperature. This increases the greenhouse effect and global warming by adding massive amounts of greenhouse gases to those already existing in the atmosphere.
The consumption of coal, oil, and gas, which account for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions, does the most harm. According to McKinsey’s Global Energy Perspective 2019, fossil fuels accounted for 83 percent of total CO2 emissions in 2019, with coal-fired power plants alone accounting for 36 percent, despite the fact that emissions reduced substantially in 2020 due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
The current trend of CO2 emissions due to coal combustion is projected to be responsible for roughly a third of the 1°C increase in average yearly temperatures beyond pre-industrial levels, making it the most significant source of emissions in human history. Oil is the second-largest source of emissions in absolute terms, accounting for 12.54 billion tonnes of CO2 (86 percent of total carbon emissions of 14.55 billion tonnes) in 2019.
Forest destruction has significant consequences: trees help regulate the climate by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; however, when forests are destroyed, this beneficial effect is diminished, and the carbon stored in those trees is released into the atmosphere, contributing to the greenhouse effect. Finally, increased intensive livestock farming and the use of ozone-containing fertilizers add to rising greenhouse gas emissions.
Written by: Elima Lucas
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