PHOur world now is experiencing lots (no pun) of dilemmas from natural catastrophes to war. With this, lots of things is going on into my head and I just felt the need to share my insights here with you. So here it goes.
"Don't deny, we know better than band-aid solutions to global warming and climate change"
Sure, you've heard all about it, from your science teachers, the news... And I'm pretty sure your prof made you do essays about these two, HAHA... I mean
For the last 50 years, our gizmos have alarmed us with this unusually rapid rise in temperature... It was more of like a bleep bloop rather than a waaang wanggg wannng... It came to us gradually and made us realize through the years that something's really off about this.
The alarms from our scientists' android buds ignited our environmental consciousness and implied we should start anew.
Environmental warriors were on the rise and we became more aware of what's going on.
As a result, in 1978, the United States has officially banned the use of ozone-depleting substances like Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and followed by an international agreement, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer during the Vienna convention in 1987. And fortunately, we were able to slow down the rise of global temperatures.
...Or did we?
According to a Norwegian climate scientist, Bjørn H. Samset, there has been some cooling effect by sulfate aerosol pollution which he believes a "tug-of-war" is taking place in the Earth's atmosphere, hence, one of the probable reasons why the Earth's global temperature's once rapid rising has come to slow down.
Taking into account that the banning was imperfect as not all countries have implemented this and, then the banning of these greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances would be insufficient and it will NEVER be ENOUGH to do just that. This is because most of our pollution already come as byproducts of some chemical reactions from the manufacture and use of some products, to mention a few, we have refrigerants and propellants, burning of coal for energy. Moreover, the intensive culture of livestock accounts for methane pollution from animals like cattle also contributes to the worldwide dilemma
Along this line is the signing of the Paris Agreement- an agreement dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, in 2016 by 195 countries. This was very good news but then, one of the world's economic giants, the U.S. had done its recent withdrawal from the agreement in November 2019. The U.S withdrawal shows that there might be significant impacts especially that the U.S. houses some if not most of the global manufacturing of products which accounts for pollution as well. Furthermore, China has refused to participate in the agreement despite playing a big role in the manufacture of many of the world's products.
So, what now? Do we just have to wait for China and the rest of the world to sign up for the Paris agreement like the other countries did?
We must take action, plant more trees, avoid aerosol sprays and instead, opt for indoor plants that naturally freshen the air, promote sustainable agriculture, use greener technologies, increase your a/c thermostat, we should NOT ONLY skip the straws but as well as other single-use plastics and properly dispose the used ones in recycling facilities. We must instill environmental discipline, consistency, and responsibility among ourselves, our families, and our community.
The Amazon was blazing in fires, and now, Australia in its 'unprecedented' bushfires... Jakarta is sinking and so are other major cities, the Philippines is experiencing warmer Decembers and tropical cyclones have become more devastating.
It was true when they said we write our own stories, for it is only up to us to write a story of merits to a society that successfully cached the junks files of our society's advancement, or do we want to be the characters of the story of an irresponsible society who chose to be passive and one who failed to recognize the ethics of the environment.
It is up to us, and it is our greatest challenge yet.
"Don't deny, we know better than band-aid solutions to global warming and climate change"
Sure, you've heard all about it, from your science teachers, the news... And I'm pretty sure your prof made you do essays about these two, HAHA... I mean
For the last 50 years, our gizmos have alarmed us with this unusually rapid rise in temperature... It was more of like a bleep bloop rather than a waaang wanggg wannng... It came to us gradually and made us realize through the years that something's really off about this.
The alarms from our scientists' android buds ignited our environmental consciousness and implied we should start anew.
Environmental warriors were on the rise and we became more aware of what's going on.
As a result, in 1978, the United States has officially banned the use of ozone-depleting substances like Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) and followed by an international agreement, the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer during the Vienna convention in 1987. And fortunately, we were able to slow down the rise of global temperatures.
...Or did we?
According to a Norwegian climate scientist, Bjørn H. Samset, there has been some cooling effect by sulfate aerosol pollution which he believes a "tug-of-war" is taking place in the Earth's atmosphere, hence, one of the probable reasons why the Earth's global temperature's once rapid rising has come to slow down.
Taking into account that the banning was imperfect as not all countries have implemented this and, then the banning of these greenhouse gases and ozone-depleting substances would be insufficient and it will NEVER be ENOUGH to do just that. This is because most of our pollution already come as byproducts of some chemical reactions from the manufacture and use of some products, to mention a few, we have refrigerants and propellants, burning of coal for energy. Moreover, the intensive culture of livestock accounts for methane pollution from animals like cattle also contributes to the worldwide dilemma
Along this line is the signing of the Paris Agreement- an agreement dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation, and finance, in 2016 by 195 countries. This was very good news but then, one of the world's economic giants, the U.S. had done its recent withdrawal from the agreement in November 2019. The U.S withdrawal shows that there might be significant impacts especially that the U.S. houses some if not most of the global manufacturing of products which accounts for pollution as well. Furthermore, China has refused to participate in the agreement despite playing a big role in the manufacture of many of the world's products.
So, what now? Do we just have to wait for China and the rest of the world to sign up for the Paris agreement like the other countries did?
We must take action, plant more trees, avoid aerosol sprays and instead, opt for indoor plants that naturally freshen the air, promote sustainable agriculture, use greener technologies, increase your a/c thermostat, we should NOT ONLY skip the straws but as well as other single-use plastics and properly dispose the used ones in recycling facilities. We must instill environmental discipline, consistency, and responsibility among ourselves, our families, and our community.
The Amazon was blazing in fires, and now, Australia in its 'unprecedented' bushfires... Jakarta is sinking and so are other major cities, the Philippines is experiencing warmer Decembers and tropical cyclones have become more devastating.
It was true when they said we write our own stories, for it is only up to us to write a story of merits to a society that successfully cached the junks files of our society's advancement, or do we want to be the characters of the story of an irresponsible society who chose to be passive and one who failed to recognize the ethics of the environment.
It is up to us, and it is our greatest challenge yet.