Under the baobab: With critical climate change fight, we’re all in it together
Our world is changing and not in a good way. Global warming is transforming the planet. The average temperature of the earth has increased faster over the last 50 years than at any other time since at least the birth of Christ over 2,000 years ago.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change, recently published their 6th Assessment report. It states that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are higher than at any other time in the last two million years. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, the global annual temperature has increased by a little more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit. In the hundred years between 1880 and 1980, it rose on average 0.13 degrees Fahrenheit every 10 years. Since 1981, however, the rate of increase has more than doubled. For the last 40 years, the global annual temperature has risen 0.32 degrees Fahrenheit, per decade. Carbon dioxide accumulation and temperature increase accelerate climate change, which directly and catastrophically affects global weather.
Climate scientists agree that extended heat waves, frequent droughts, heavier rainfall, frequency of more powerful hurricanes are a direct result of climate change. The ice at the poles is melting at a phenomenal rate, causing sea levels to rise. Coastal cities are in danger of disappearing. Nine of the ten warmest years since 1880 have occurred since 2005 — and the five warmest years on record have all occurred since 2015.
“All life on Earth — from ecosystems to human civilization — is vulnerable to a changing climate,” the IPCC report authors state. “Its dangerous and pervasive impacts are increasingly evident in every region of our world,” they add, “hindering efforts to meet basic human needs” and “threatening sustainable development across the globe.”
Global warming occurs when carbon dioxide and other air pollutants like methane, nitrous oxide and synthetic fluorinated gases collect in the atmosphere where they absorb sunlight and solar radiation that have bounced off the earth’s surface. These pollutants trap the heat and cause the planet to get hotter. This is known as the greenhouse effect. It is caused by human activity like burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil, gasoline and natural gas. In the United States, the largest source of greenhouse gases is transportation (29%), followed closely by electricity production (28%) and industrial activity (22%)
Climate change is not a local problem. We are all in this together. The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change, adopted by 196 parties (countries) in Paris, on Dec. 12, 2015. Its goal is to limit global warming to below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels. The IPCC reports that at present we are higher than the global warming target of 1.5 degrees Celsius but lower than the disastrous 2 degrees Celsius.
Let’s be clear, for us and our recognizable world to survive, it is essential to find ways to reduce global carbon emissions by as much as 40% by 2030. Our global community must take immediate and concrete steps to decarbonize electricity generation by equitably transitioning from fossil fuel-based production to renewable energy sources like wind and solar, to electrify our cars and trucks, and to maximize energy efficiency in our buildings, appliances and industries.
We had solar panels installed on our house. We are purchasing an electric car. It cost us a lot. The alternative would be more expensive for the global community in the long run. Fortunately, the new bill passed by Congress and signed by President Biden will provide us some tax relief.
We must do this, brothers and sisters. It is not a matter of leaving our children a better world but making sure they have any world.