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Humankind is destroying Mother Earth [1]

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Date: 2022-09-15

Pollution is destroying our planet.

The human race is wildly destructive, causing enormous damage to the environment around us. According to the European Commission, mankind is estimated to be responsible for approximately 15 per cent of the current excessive warming of global temperatures. And according to the organization Client Earth, “an increase in average global temperatures above 1.5C risks sea level rise, extreme weather and the loss of species and habitats as well as food scarcity and increasing poverty for millions of people worldwide.”

Pollutants in the air break down the Ozone Layer, which is supposed to protect us from harmful rays infiltrating the upper atmospheres. With a damaged Ozone Layer, the polar ice caps are heating up and satellite images show that major ice floes are melting at a dangerously rapid rate. The polar ice caps, being white, reflect sunlight — and heat — back into space. Without this incredible help from nature, the sunlight is instead getting absorbed, thereby heating the atmosphere.

US President Joe Biden has appointed former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate czar with the mission to tackle climate change and develop ways to solve some of the problems contributing to this ever-worsening catastrophe. Some experts believe one of the ways to tackle the problem of climate change is through Machine Learning (ML) which “can be a powerful tool in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping society adapt to a changing climate.”

These experts explain that the effects of climate change are “increasingly visible” through storms, droughts, fires, and flooding, which have “become stronger and more frequent.” They cite the 2018 intergovernmental report on climate change, which estimated that the world “will face catastrophic consequences unless global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are eliminated within 30 years. Yet year after year, these emissions rise.”

They add that addressing climate change “involves mitigation (reducing emissions) and adaptation (preparing for unavoidable consequences).” These two approaches are crucial for understanding and solving the issues related to climate change. Mitigating the causes of climate change is the first important step toward reducing our massive carbon footprint.

Renewable energy is the first solution that comes to mind of course, but it isn’t as simple as it sounds. Wind farms take up space on land, are known to injure and kill birds, and are only useful when it is windy. Solar farms take up huge tracts of land and are only useful when it is sunny. Electric Vehicles (EV) are becoming more popular, but their energy still comes from electricity which is generated by carbon-producing power plants. The state of California recently announced a policy to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. Some popular suggestions in recent years include keeping fossil fuels in the ground, investing in renewable energy, and switching to sustainable transport.

It is clear that there is no one solution that will fix climate change. There must be a combined effort on the part of individuals, businesses and governments, which, in time, can potentially reduce the damage being done. Not everyone needs to do what Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard did, which is give away his entire apparel company worth $3 billion for the climate change cause.

There is no shortage of climate-change-thumping activists who preach to the public and then callously turn around to climb aboard their carbon-emissions-producing private jets. And even if the United States government implements strict laws and regulations regarding factory emissions, it will have no effect on the mind-blowing pollution produced by factories in China and India.

Greenpeace notes that in 2015, world leaders signed the Paris agreement, to put climate change solutions into practice. “Core to all climate change solutions is reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which must get to zero as soon as possible. Because both forests and oceans play vitally important roles in regulating our climate, increasing the natural ability of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide can also help stop global warming.”

Greenpeace also notes that “major oil and gas companies including BP, Exxon and Shell have spent hundreds of millions of pounds trying to delay or stop government policies that would have helped tackle the climate crisis.”

Preventing lobbyists from influencing lawmakers and introducing tougher laws and regulations is the only way to ensure true action on the ground. While it is unlikely that India or China will be willing, at least in the immediate future, to make any changes, the US can and should implement its own changes. A next step could be the creation of incentives by western countries including the US and EU, to encourage other countries to follow suit and create a cleaner future for the next generations.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/15/2122974/-Humankind-is-destroying-Mother-Earth

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