Climate Emergency- A Global Responsibility

Climate Emergency threatens nature and life on earth. The proposition of climate emergency comes from the authentication that we are leading towards a climate tipping point that once crossed, will lead to a situation where the negative effects on the environment and climate become irreversible and uncontrollable.

Climate Emergency may refer to human-caused climate change. It is a climate crisis, a characterization of climate change. But what is the reason for climate emergency?

Why Climate Emergency?

The real cause for Climate Emergency is Climate Change. The change in long-term Weather Patterns is known as Climate Change. It has resulted in Global Warming as Earth has warmed unprecedently over the last few decades. Climate Change is a serious environmental concern that has caused major shifts in Temperature, Rainfall, and Wind Patterns.

Impacts of Climate Change:

There may be several impacts of climate change on the economy. Some of the impacts may include- Rising Temperature that can be dangerous causing diseases; Rising Sea Levels that increase coastal erosion, change in the water surface, and many more; Melting of Glaciers which lead to a rise in sea level, impact on global climate; loss of wildlife and biodiversity; Fluctuation in Monsoon Patterns; and so on.

For instance- Climate disasters are getting more extreme. Climate change has a diverse impact in Central America in November 2020. It impacted around 6 million people. Around 10,000 people have migrated northward region after two huge storm hits. This is all because of the climatic change in the economy.

Causes of Climate Change:

There are many causes for Climate change that include greenhouse gases, agriculture, deforestation, solar activity, and human activities. These factors cause Climate change which further leads to the situation of climate emergency.

For example- In mid-February 2021, the extreme weather events caused the winter storms, and hit Arkansas and a major part of the United States. The scientists interpret that Arkansas continued to get warm for decades. This leads to an increase in moisture and energy, which produced more heavy precipitation, and further winter storms.

How to deal with Climate Emergency?

We know that Climate Emergency is a situation in which urgent steps are taken to reduce or halt the climatic change taking place in our environment. Besides, it takes into account the idea of potentiality reducing the environmental damage resulting from it. Since increased climatic changes have caused climate emergencies, it is very important to comprehend and implement some climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies

Mitigating Climate Change is about lowering the exculpate of greenhouse gas emissions that are warming our planet. Some of the mitigation strategies are as follows:

•  Increasing Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency benefits a wide range of sectors like residential, transport, building, industry, and so on. Retrofitted buildings can shrink heating and cooling energy requirements by 50-90 percent. Now, energy-efficient buildings often use close to zero energy for heating and cooling.

•  Use of Renewable Sources of Energy

Renewable energy technologies like wind, biomass, solar, tidal, and geothermal generate many environmental and economic benefits. Investments in renewable technology bring the added benefit of stimulating employment and economic growth. Thus, it moves the world towards low- carbon economy.

•  Developing Sustainable Transport

The world relies on transportation to fuel its economic growth. With the increase in the greenhouse emissions from fossil fuels, the growth of global transport has gone hand-in-hand. Also, with the right policies and technology, the transport sector can contribute enormously to reduce emissions and fighting climate change.

Also, adaptation Strategies include ways to reduce the negative impacts of climate change. Some of these strategies are as follows:

•  Reforestation

Reforestation refers to growing plants on the lands where they were cut down previously. It helps in controlling floods and maintaining the overall ecological balance in the economy.

• Weather Control

Weather control and forecasts should be done with the help of new technologies. Thus, it would be very helpful for the farmers in the agricultural field, industrialists, people living in flood-prone and coastal areas.

•  Maintaining Current Ecosystems

There is increasing evidence that large, healthy, and intact ecosystems are best able to withstand climate change. Also, highly diverse ecosystems are likely to be most flexible in the face of rapid environmental changes. Thus, ecosystems can be protected at any cost.

How can we Individually Contribute to reducing Climate Emergency?

We, as individuals, can contribute to the reduction of Climate emergencies through certain steps. We can follow the following ways to add into our daily lives:

1. One can power our home with renewable energy, by choosing a company that generates about half of the power from wind or solar energy.
2. We can invest in energy-efficient appliances. It is the cheapest way to reduce harmful gas emissions. While buying any electrical appliance, prefer to buy the energy-efficient one.
3. One of the ways may include driving a fuel-efficient vehicle. Several vehicles are fully electric and hybrids. The use of such vehicles saves fuel as well as money.
4. Saving water contributes to a reduction in carbon pollution. Since it takes a lot of energy to pump, heat, and treat your water, so take several preventive steps to reduce the wastage of water.
5. Many appliances are held to plugin even after the full charging. So try to save energy by unplugging the useless plugged outlets.

Conclusion

“FIGHT TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW”

Climate is changing across our planet, and the change is substantially due to human activities. The change is visible in all the components of the climate system -a warming of land and sea surface, sea-level rise, ocean acidification, and weather extremes. Therefore, the globe is in needs to learn how to conserve the use of fossil fuels to minimize CO2 production. This will slow down the effect of climate change. Our response should be in a moral and ethical framework. Further, this framework should be based around the maximum protection of human and nonhuman life. Maximum protection would mean lowering global warming and hatching global cooling as soon as possible. However, we need to reduce our emissions as far as possible in all sectors of our economy. Further, to create a global cooling we will need to disrupt our economies – not just tweak them.