Global warming : the inevitable consequence of human activity
"The climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win", Secretary-General, United Nations, António Guterres.
Climate change has emerged as a defining crisis of the current time, and it is happening faster than anticipated. Every corner of the globe is susceptible to the devastating consequences of climate change. Rising temperatures are negatively impacting our ecosystem with increasing environmental degradation, weather extremes, unusual natural disasters, food and water insecurity, economic disruption etc. The rising of sea levels, melting of Arctic, dying of coral reefs, acidification of oceans clearly indicates how the impact of climate change is reaching irreversible highs.
How global temperatures are rising with CO2 emissions
Billions of tons of CO2 are released into the atmosphere every year because of burning of non-renewable resources or fossil fuels. According to the UN Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are at an alarmingly high level, with no signs of slowing down, due to human activity. The focus of the report has been to assess the trajectory of GHG emissions for a comparative analysis with the threshold levels towards the direst consequences of climate change. The findings so far have been less than reassuring, pointing towards a lack of collective effort. In 2018, the CO2 emission was a staggering 55.3 GT indicating a temperature rise of 3.2°C in future even if all countries fully comply with their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), pledged under the Paris Agreement.
According to a report by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in September 2019, the planet is close to “an unacceptable risk” (as per experts) with 1°C above preindustrial levels. The Paris Agreement, 2015, on climate change warns for keeping the eventual warming “well below” < 2°C. But if global emissions are not reduced, temperatures could rise > 2°C by 2100, causing irreversible damage to ecosystems. Global Climate Report, 2023 recorded temperatures of the months in the second half of the year (June-December) as hottest. In fact, in average, the temperatures were more than 1.0°C (1.8°F) above the long-term threshold for the first time (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Centres for Environmental Information).
As a direct effect of fast melting of glaciers and ice sheets in polar and mountain regions, sea levels are rising putting over 5 million populations at risk along with other 40% of the world’s population residing within 100 km of the coastal regions. With no tangible actions, there is a high possibility that the entire districts of New York, Shanghai, Abu Dhabi, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, and many other cities will be submerged underwater within our lifetimes.
The magnitude of Global warming of planet Earth is directly proportional to the amount of CO2 and other GHGs being emitted in coming decades. Humans are negatively impacting the global carbon cycle by burning wood, fossil fuels (such as oil, coal, and natural gas), and other forms of carbon. These activities release stored carbon into the atmosphere, converting it to GHGs. GHGs are responsible for absorbing and releasing heat in the atmosphere. Currently, because of burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation, as well as deforestation for making lands available for agriculture and industrial processes, about 11 billion MTs of carbon (> 40 billion MTs of CO2) is added to the atmosphere every year. As this amount exceeds the capacity of removing carbon from the environment by natural processes, there is an irreversible increase of the level of atmospheric CO2 each year.