Environmental conservation and climate change resilience

 

Environmental conservation and climate change resilience

 

 

 

Environmental conservation is key to a good future, we need to be aware of the actions we do that lead to carbon footprint, from the videos we watch online to the pollution we cause by burning petroleum. You might be having a doubt, ‘how does watching videos online cause pollution?’.  As I go on explaining about Environment conservation, you will come to know. Human beings largely depend on their environment for survival and that is why it is highly encouraged that each one avoids activities that may cause pollution. Below are some of the major causes of pollution.

 

Mining, Quarrying: when mining, quarrying activities take place, heavy machinery causes a release of dust and other fumes into the atmosphere. This may result in toxicity of air within the region. Here, the example of the forest fires in California and Australia can be taken.

Agricultural activities: human beings rely on agriculture for food. However, certain agricultural activities like spraying of chemicals to get rid of parasites may end up causing pollution to the air and soil erosion takes place. So don’t use harmful chemicals, instead go organic!!

Poor waste disposal and the use of plastic: poor waste disposal is regarded as one of the major causes of pollution because it is widely practiced. Both industries and individual human beings contribute to this cause. As per plastic, it doesn’t get decomposed in the soil for many years! Always follow the 3Rs!! Reuse, Reduce, Recycle

Industrial Emissions: in the process of creating products to be used for various issues, industries end up emitting large quantities of toxic wastes and fumes which end up causing pollution.

 

Fossil fuels: petroleum and coal are among some of the leading causes of fossil fuel pollution. The burning of petroleum is causing pollution which is leading to global warming, which is in turn leading to a rise in temperatures, resulting in the death of fauna and health problems in human beings. We should always opt for renewable sources, which I’ll be mentioning quite a bit later on!!

 

So, what can we do to stop global warming? Well, there are some solutions for it. We should use as little electricity as possible, and try to travel short distances without travelling by bike or car. Now, you might think electric cars don’t cause any pollution, why don’t we use them to travel short distances, well, electric cars and bikes are powered by electricity, and electricity is generated by burning coal. We indirectly are producing a carbon footprint even though electric vehicles don’t burn petroleum. Don’t get me wrong electric cars and bikes are more preferable in this process of climate change than conventional petroleum-powered cars and so is the case for watching videos online, when we try to visit a website online, severs respond to it, and there are millions of servers around the globe, and you guessed it, all powered by electricity.

 

Need for a climate change- There is an urge for climate change around the globe. The average increase in temperature, per year is around 0.10 Celsius, sounds really low right? In reality it is not, just an increase to around 1.5 degrees of temperature can lead to 350 million people having water shortages, the rise in sea level would be around 40 cm and 37% of the world’s population may get exposed to heatwaves. And an increase of 2 degrees in temperature may result in yet more damage.

 

 

The problem is even though we try to reduce our carbon footprint, we can’t completely eradicate it, research shows that even though the carbon released into the air is zero from now onwards, climate change is inevitable. Therefore, we should immediately spread awareness about it. It’s not an issue that could be solved overnight, but it can pose less danger in the future if we start to spread awareness and start to follow the measures to decrease carbon footprint. One more change I want to emphasize is the switch to renewable sources. If the pollution to a large extent is to be reduced, then we need to switch to renewable sources like Solar Energy, Wind Energy, Nuclear Energy, we can protect our planet Earth using a variety of renewable sources depending on the place. For example- In India on average there are 2,300 sunshine hours annually, so it’s a good place for using solar energy. In countries like The Netherlands, there is a lot of high-speed wind, therefore it’s a place where the energy from wind can be harnessed (It has already been put to use in there).

 

Coming to Climate resilience, it is the adaptive capacity for a social-ecological system: (1) absorb stresses and maintain function in the face of external stresses imposed upon it by climate change and (2) adapt, reorganize, and evolve into more desirable configurations that improve the sustainability of the system, leaving it better prepared for future climate change impacts.

 

Extreme weather events have shown that resilience is an essential component of any comprehensive climate action program because climate change is both a global and a hyper-local issue. The causes and the broad impacts affect everyone on the planet, but resilience efforts must be executed at the asset, neighborhood , or individual level. It will take a combined and coordinated effort between all the nations around the globe, as none saw before, to address this issue. The good news is that addressing these risks can not only protect people and property but also generate economic activity that will create domestic jobs and drive prosperity.

 

As I mentioned before, even though carbon isn’t being used anymore from this point onwards, there is no way of avoiding climate change, that is, the carbon we’ve released into the air is enough to create climate disasters. There are some ways by which we can be resilient to climate change, by placing early warning systems for cyclones and switching to drought-resistant crops, building flood defenses etc. Moreover, creating awareness of the disasters might help prepare people for the disasters better and create a less-panic situation when a disaster arises.

 

Well, that’s it, hoped you enjoyed reading my blog and do try to reduce the carbon footprint emitted by switching to renewable sources and doing various other things mentioned in my blog, last but not least always be resilient to climate change. Thanks!

 

Written by Lohith Aditya Kolli

Class 10

Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s Public School (Vidyashram), Hyderabad.