GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTIONS THAT CAN HELP OUR PLANET

This story, originally published by Legit News of Nigeria, has been shared as part of World News Day 2021, a global campaign to highlight the critical role of fact-based journalism in providing trustworthy news and information in service of humanity. #JournalismMatters.

ow to stop global warming?” is one of the essential questions raised within International summits and meetings devoted to environmental protection. This process requires immediate concerted efforts of all countries around the world. They have already felt the harmful influence of climate change: drought, floods, hurricanes, and tornados – these natural phenomena occur more often in such areas, one may hardly ever expect it to be!

PREVENTION OF GLOBAL WARMING

Global warming is a process when one can observe a gradual magnification of the mean annual temperature of both the atmosphere and surface area of the Earth as well as the World Ocean. It happens due to various reasons connected with the concentration of warming gases in the atmosphere, volcanic or solar activity, etc.

Rather often, a word-combination “greenhouse effect” is used as a synonym to a notion “global warming”. One has to mention that there is a slight difference between these two notions.

The greenhouse effect is the phenomenon, which denotes heating within the Earth’s surface, lower atmosphere and the World Ocean because of a big concentration of greenhouse gases (methane, carbon dioxide, water vapour etc.). At daytime, the sunlight penetrates through the atmosphere.

Its warmth heats the surface. At night, the planet cools down, releasing the warmth, which is later accumulated in the upper levels of the atmosphere.

This evaporation plays a role of a glass greenhouse. Gases freely increase the temperatures and cause the melt of the Arctic ice and enlargement of the sea level.

WHAT ACTIONS CAN PREVENT GLOBAL HEATING?

1. Be smart – drive Less. One can use alternative means of transportation like bikes. If you still can’t imagine your life without a car, try to diminish the volume of CO2 generated by your vehicle: hold the tires of a vehicle nicely pumped up. This action can improve the petrol mileage by more than 3 percent. Moreover, the world of car industry has hugely enhanced its efficiency during the last years. The buyers are also offered to try electric and hybrid cars.

2. Save and safe. The consumption cycle is one of the ways to enlarge global climate change: large factories produce new clothes each day due to the high level of demand in the market. When one starts wearing used clothes, he helps to reduce the number of resources necessary for production as well as for recycling useless garments. The less you buy, the more you do for the environment.

3. Reuse, reduce and recycle. Every day millions of goods are sold. Each of them has got a package. To help our planet “breathe” more freely, one should start to buy products with minimal packaging. At present, people learn to reuse plastic bottles as containers for plant growing. Small scraps of fabric can turn into a beautiful blanket for fans of patchwork etc. Plastic, paper, and iron belong to a category of recyclable materials. Special organisations provide help to motivate people to collect and recycle them.

4. Wise house or heat less. Make sure that your house is insolated with special materials, which help to save warmth inside the house and spend less electricity.

5. Save energy! Old lamps need much energy to work properly. The new-age technologies allow people to get the same results with less harm: use fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs to save your time and money.

6. Lower electricity consumption. If you cannot change the environment within 1 second, you can proceed small steps on a way to perfect future. Switch the light off, leaving the room, the flat or a house. Switch all techniques off if you don’t use it at the moment. Consume that “enough”, which is necessary.

7. The green lungs of the earth. Use a possibility to plant a tree or two. These plants produce oxygen and consume carbon dioxide. If people plant more trees, the clearer environment will possess.

8. Think “green” or Facebook, Twitter and Social Network help either! Millions of people use their gadgets and have no idea that these technologies can bring use to climate change: one can share information about the ways to reuse some packages, old clothes and useless things in a new way; one can arrange competitions and clear the neighbouring area. Become an example of a person showing that “being green” is normal. It helps to make the Earth healthier.

9. Alternative energy. Alternative resources are an ideal means that belongs to inexhaustible resources. Moreover, solar panels or wind stations produce electricity without CO2 emission.

10. Save water. It takes much time and resources to renovate the quality of water. Try to make the shower shorter and more efficient (use special showerheads, which use 50 per cent water and 50 per cent air).

11. Support local food manufacturers. People can’t live without food. But have you ever thought about the number of efforts and resources were put to produce, pack and deliver a product onto a shelf of a supermarket and a shop? Large vehicles drive enormous distances, consume plenty of the petrol and produce CO2. Each day millions of cars repeat the action. If one supports his local manufacturer, he decreases a demand in the market and saves resources.

12. Rethink your transportation. The planes are said to be the primary source of air pollution. If you can drive by train or by bus, do that and save the nature.

CONTROL OF GLOBAL WARMING

It is evident that in future humankind will have to attempt strict control of global warming. One may already see the results of climate shift now. The situation may become even worse so that humans will become extinct. Sounds frightening, isn’t it?

One may ask a question whether it is possible to control CO2 emission. At present, the development of regulatory documents and their improvement is a great work done by all countries together. Many countries have assumed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1999).

Unfortunately, many countries that have the highest percentage of CO2 emission have rejected the latter one.

HOW TO PREVENT GLOBAL WARMING

The development of a new, environmentally friendly nation is an essential task for each country. The experts think that the strategy of overcoming global resource crisis should include the following steps:

develop a “healthy energy” economy – to get effectual technologies involved in the industry;

widen the usage of revolving energy (alternative sources);

change the current energetic system into a less dependent (on gas, coal, etc.) and healthier one;

reduce energy consumption and make it more efficient;

restore forests to enlarge natural carbon dioxide absorbers from the atmosphere.

The full damage, done by humanity to the environment, cannot be compensated within one or even ten years. But, small steps on the way to bright future are worth taking! Nature does not forgive mistakes.

Anyone who learns to live in peace with the environment sooner or later will be rewarded and ensure a healthy future for his children.