A Plea In Favor Of Nature

In recent years, we have been made aware of an issue that threatens to significantly alter our world and not at all in a positive respect. This issue is climate change and scientists have been very vocal about the damage it seeks to cause Earth. Yet I find that while most people have heard of climate change, they seem to lack an understanding of what it means and the gravity of the matter is often lost upon them.

Some take this ignorance of the phenomenon a step further and claim that it isn’t real but rather an elaborate hoax designed by the governments of the world to incite mass panic (as egregious as that may sound). As a consequence of this very ignorance, I have decided to charge myself here to give a brief summary of climate change, its catastrophic consequences, and the efforts we can make to mitigate the destruction it is causing our world.

To understand climate change, we must understand how the Earth absorbs and uses the energy it receives from the sun. Energy, in the form of sunlight, takes approximately eight minutes to reach Earth. Right away, about a third of it is returned to space by bright objects like clouds and ice. Most of the remaining energy is then absorbed by the Earth, with only a small portion being absorbed directly by the atmosphere.

As all objects transfer heat to other objects, so too do the land and the ocean transfer a portion of this heat into the atmosphere, where it is trapped by water vapors and greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide. This entrapment of the sun’s heat by these gases is called the greenhouse effect and it helps regulate the Earth’s temperature, keeping the planet from getting too cold. Without the greenhouse effect, we’d be living on a frozen Earth. These phenomena have been entirely independent of human activity before the industrial revolution.

But since the dawn of the industrial revolution in the mid-18th century, we have upset the delicate balance required by the Earth to maintain itself. Factories have been dumping toxic wastes into rivers and pollutants into the air. The large-scale use of automobiles has contributed to an increased concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This marked increase in their concentration means that the greenhouse gases trap more heat from the Earth, thereby making the Earth warmer.

Global warming is responsible for the ongoing melting of polar ice caps which is destroying vast biodiverse spots on the Earth as well as contributing to a rise in sea levels, putting millions of island inhabitants and ecosystems at risk. The rise in global temperature has also led to the bleaching of coral reefs. These reefs, sensitive to changes in the ocean temperature, provide a rich ecosystem for marine fauna and flora. Their bleaching and, therefore, the devastation is detrimental to the continued existence of marine life.

We must remember, of course, that it is not only the climate that requires our attention but also the myriad of animal and plant species that we share the Earth with. On that account, I feel compelled to point out that we have driven countless species into extinction through overfishing and hunting. Further compounding this very problem is the act of deforestation. Rapid urbanization also inevitably leads to more devastation of the natural world. With a growing global trend of industrialization, things are only shaping up to become worse.

With the future of the natural world so gloomy, what is to be its salvation? Environmentally conscious people advocate for small steps against climate change like the use of paper straws and the utilization of public transport to put less stress on the environment. These small steps mean nothing in the long run, however.

Why should the solution to a systemic problem be individual? To mitigate the destruction we are causing, we must incite systemic change. At present, it is various industries that pose the greatest threat: the fishing industry is responsible for overfishing, the automobile industry contributes to a steady increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases, and factories owned by various industries play a hand in deforestation and global warming.

If the planet is to survive, these industries must be kept in check. That is a feat an individual cannot accomplish alone and so we must accomplish it together. The various states charged with the governance of the world must unite to save it. If not, we face grave misfortune. Already, floods are devastating Asia, and African countries are experiencing record spikes in temperature.

It is doubtful that we, as a species, will face an existential threat because of climate change (not, at least, for now). But we will surely bring about the destruction of the natural world and the extinction of the myriad species that live within it. I, for one, should like to live in a world filled with a variety of habitats, where the air we breathe is fresh and tiny insects crawl in the crevices of tall trees. Wouldn’t you?