The drastic increase in the emission of CO2 in the last 20 years, primarily caused by burning fossil fuels has been identified as a major reason for the change of temperature in the atmosphere. The true cause of global warming is our tough attitude towards nature. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up, plants and animal ranges have already shifted trees and flowering. Loss of ice, accelerated sea level rise and high intensity heat waves are all results of global warming.
It’s good that we are getting wealthier but unfortunately that comes at the cost of environment. Since the industrial revolution began around 1750, human activities have contributed substantially to climate change by adding CO2 and other heat trapping gases to the atmosphere. The green house gases emissions have increased the green house effect and caused earth surface temperature to rise. Release of heat from computer servers, aerosols, CO2 emissions, A.C.’s are all adding to the imbalance of environment. Carbon footprint has grown manifold. The main green house gases are CO2, CH4 and N2O.
Atmospheric CO2 concentration has increased by almost 40% since pre-industrial times. The Current CO2 level is much higher than it has been in at least 800,000 years. Human activities release over 30 millions tons of CO2 in to the atmosphere every year. Similarly Methane is produced through natural wetlands, agricultural activities and fossil fuels extraction, CH4 concentrations have increased during most of the 20th century and are now more than two and half times pre-industrial levels. It is now the responsibility of citizens like us to take initiatives to control the global warming. No government can undo or reverse global warming.
A huge tragedy was witnessed in Nepal at Annapurna Track where 40 trackers lost their lives. Hudhud cyclone brought snow storm. And the trackers couldn’t anticipate the natural calamity. But the question is how natural it is or are we the people of this earth responsible for it. Arctic Ice is melting because of acceleration in global warming. We have to combat this man made potential disaster for our future generations. As Margaret Thatcher said “We inherited from our predecessor and borrowed from our children”. The green planet is a blessing and we have to preserve it.
