Curing the Earth

Jacqueline Green, Cotlands, Sidmouth.

There’s a minor miracle happening in our hospital radiology departments. Without touching your body, problems can be detected using CT and MRI scans and X-rays. These devices save countless lives.

With a similar technological marvel, our planet is being scanned, too, from satellites orbiting far above us. The data has been used by weather forecasters for decades and increasingly for climate science.

In 2021, a team led by NASA scientist, Ryan Kramer, along with scientists from Leeds University, were able to measure that there is more energy entering the earth’s atmosphere than is leaving, causing the atmosphere and oceans to heat.

Crucially, the technique developed by Kramer and his team was able to show what’s causing this and how quickly it’s getting worse. The work confirmed that human activities are changing Earth’s energy budget, trapping much more energy from the sun than is escaping back into space.

The result didn’t reach the headlines because it was telling us what climate scientists already knew from multiple indirect sources. But, importantly, it emphasised prior knowledge, by using direct measurement, the strongest form of scientific evidence.

Satellites are also helping in other ways because we can now detect methane leaks from oil and gas fields. Methane is far more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2 and, because methane degrades much quicker, reducing methane emissions has a quick positive impact.

Governments are funding research that tells us more and more about climate change and what action we should take to work with the planet, not against it. Now they need to show real leadership to ensure our economies and societies become sustainable, because we’re making our earth sick.