Industry vs Environment
Our planet's rotation resembles that of a clock. Its spin gives time; yet each turn is finite. The battery of the clock may be juxtaposed to its milieus and environments. However, its conservation depends on the workers within the battery. The Earth’s complacency in spinning is vital to the lives spinning within. In a world where everything is being replaced with new discoveries almost every year, consequences are inevitable. And as this rapidly continues to who knows until when, the real question is: how much time do we have left?
In 2015, world leaders gathered in Paris to unite in one goal: limiting greenhouse gas emissions that will sever the branches of Climate Change and its effects on weather patterns. Looking back to what the strongest typhoon ever recorded, it’s safe to say that they are preparing for a more dreadful storm or that may form from the oceans.
See, typhoons become stronger because of the increase in sea temperature. Everyone knows that and everyone has become more vigilant and being more educated of typhoons that may form in the future. Much of this is from the high death toll of supertyphoon Yolanda where lessons were learned when it comes to reducing or eliminating the dangers storms could bring. Take the calamity-prone province of Albay as an example. It is now being praised for being a disaster risk reduction and management czar since 2006. If Albayanos didn’t learn from Typhoon Reming’s (international name: Durian) casualties, the casualty statistics from Typhoon Sisang’s (international name: Nina) wrath in 1995—which, for the record, is the 3rd worst disaster in the country in terms of cost of damage—may have been repeated.
But storms are the least of humans’ problems. There is always the climate’s increase in temperature which causes the Earth to become more feeble and vulnerable. With this, people must become not only knowledgeable but also observant toward what other problems that may emanate from its terrestrial grounds. For starters, there are already seven general problems that everyone must know and must be abated before it is too late.
First is the theory that in 21 years, until in 2036 or so, the Earth’s temperature will obviously rise. The continuity of the rapid increase of temperature since the 1950s is estimated to increase by 2 degrees. Which means that it will reach the world’s limit for its conformity toward global heat.
Second is the industrialization that adds to the rise of the earth’s heat. Humans add 40.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Specifically, greenhouse gases such as methane trap the heat, leading to the warming surface of temperatures. Moreover, the time frame of 1983-2012 was considered to be the warmest 30-year period in at least 1,400 years. This warm time frame—due to its greenhouse gases—has never been experienced for the last 800,000 years. If this continues, thousands of years of future great experience of heat may be reduced to a hundred if greenhouse gas-emitting products are not reformed.
Increasing population also adds up to the speeding up of the world’s climate. For merely forty years (in the years between 1750 and 2011), half of the human population has caused the enormous release of greenhouse gases. Also, the emission of greenhouse gases came from merely two sources: fossil fuel and industrial processes. And the 78 percent of the greenhouse gas was from 1970 to 2010.
Sadly, even if we stop greenhouse gases emissions, global temperature will still rise between 0.3 and 1.7 degrees by year 2100. These are products of the ecosystem being pulled and pushed to its limit, causing extreme weather patterns, uneven demographic and regional impact, global aggregate impact and large-scale singular events. Also even with the 1-degree increase, the Arctic’s ice and warm-water coral reefs will undergo irreversible consequences. If this reaches 2-degrees, the sea level will rise by about 0.5 meters also by 2100.
The prevention will not be merely unstoppable due to its natural and artificial causes but also by numerical equivalent of the emissions. Emissions from the Industrial Revolution until last 2011 already amounted to an estimated 1900 gigatons of carbon dioxide. And carbon dioxide is crucial because the concept of carbon budget circulates on the amount of carbon dioxide emissions possible before the planet crosses the 2-degree threshold. Meaning, if this continues to decrease, the meeting of the 2-degree limit will be hastily reached.
So how much climate budget do we have left? For the last four years, emissions reached to 157 gigatons of carbon dioxide. We only have 1000 gigatons of carbon dioxide. If these run out, in twenty years, the planet will already meet its 2-degree danger zone. And what’s worse than worse? The coming of 2021. Within 6 years once these changes are not abated, its reversibility may be permanently corked. Why? Since 2011, we have annually consumed 40.3 gigatons of carbon dioxide.
Do you feel the time running out? The consequences of being modern are arriving. Can it be permanently stopped? No. But it's never harmful to always focus on minimizing the effects of climate change and the different factors that cause it. Innovations come with a price, but with the new discoveries arriving each day, the world may just go back to square one. In order to fully realize the goal of having a sustainable environment, solutions must start from a radical change of consumer habits and let them decide on which they prefer more: industrial comfort or environmental comfort.
