Sickness in humans tends to last for weeks, but what if our blue planet gets sick? The Earth is continuously facing many challenges due to global warming. Trapping the heat from the sun is a natural process that helps to sustain life, which makes our earth a unique “goldilocks“ planet among the eight planets of our solar system. But if anything in excess is harmful, then isn’t the increase in temperature of our planet hazardous?
Greenhouse gases absorb heat at daytime and this helps maintain the Earth’s temperature at night. Due to this phenomenon, the planet’s temperature doesn’t fall to minus 20⁰ C even at night, as recorded in other planets (except Venus because it has a thick atmosphere and greenhouse gases). But an excess of greenhouse gases causes global warming. The major greenhouse gases are water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).
Humans have directly or indirectly contributed to global warming through rapid construction, industrial expansion, transportation and agriculture. For building any new infrastructure, at the initial stage, we clear the land that disturbs the proportion of greenery in the natural environment. Burning fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) releases carbon into the atmosphere. Unsustainable practices such as clearing forest for agriculture and overgrazing are also to blame. Stubble burning, where straw is set on fire after the harvest, also releases greenhouse gases.
Humans transform the natural environment to meet their needs and desires, but this often leads to an imbalance in nature. The temperature of the Earth has increased, leading to the melting of permafrost and that of icebergs. When permafrost melts as a consequence of warming, a large amount of organic material becomes available for methanogenesis and it may ultimately be released as methane into the atmosphere.
Effects of this event are disastrous such as rise in sea level, forest fires, outbreak of new diseases, extreme weather events, and changes in biodiversity.
We need to do more to save the Earth. Let us start by avoiding the use of private vehicles and opting for public transport, bicycling or walking. Let us use more renewable energy, and plant and take care of trees.
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