You Are Killing Our Planet
“The Earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses”
-Utah Phillips
There are a lot of problems in the world, big and small, where many small issues have now turned into major problems. Major problems like Economics, Wars, Public health crises, and Wildlife conservatives, have contributed much influence on our lives. I wrote this article to talk about something a lot more important than some of the smaller global problems. This article is to talk about Climate change, which is a global crisis on the same level as the aforementioned large-scale problems. Climate change is a global crisis that affects all of life on the planet and could pose to be an extremely dangerous problem if not taken seriously. To show just how destructive climate change can be, biologists have found that 50 percent of the world’s coral reefs have died in the last 30 years and up to 90 percent may die within the next century. If this problem is large enough to affect the coral reefs so quickly, it is impossible to predict how quickly it will affect humans in the same way.
The problem with society today is that we are so focused on what’s at hand we end up turning a blind eye on our future. As part of the citizens of Canada, it is your duty to make sure that humanity as a species will thrive now, and continue to thrive in the future. We have had massive changes in our planet’s climate since the 19th century. Storms have become more powerful, more hurricanes, bigger floods, larger wildfires and these are just to name a few consequences. I believe that the government is not doing enough to stop pollution, which is a primary cause of climate change and is instead, doing the exact opposite by promoting more expansionist morals. What needs to be done instead is figuring out a solution to slow down and eventually reverse climate change. If this does not happen soon, many species on this planet will be affected severely. Not only will we exterminate most of the life on the planet; not acting soon can almost certainly cause the extinction of Homo Sapiens, making humanity the first and only species to destroy their own planet to the point of uninhabitability.
Pollution is a more general way of addressing multiple, different forms of pollutants. Pollutants can be air-based, water-based, and land-based, along with many other types. Certain pollutants can enter the air and destroy the ozone layer surrounding the Earth. A reduction in the ozone levels can lead to a huge increase in UV radiation, which was previously filtered through the ozone layer. This is extremely dangerous considering the temperature can rise by up to 33x the normal average temperature during the summer. Not only will this affect humans but it will also effect the environment. Plants will die from the extreme variation in temperatures, and if the plants die, most of the remaining life will follow soon after, as life of large multicellular organisms are dependent on plants.
The polar ice caps are melting because of global warming. Water levels are rising incredibly fast due to the fact of icebergs melting. Evidence concludes that fossil fuel combustion, deforestation, and land-use change are primarily responsible for climate changes. “The atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, the largest contributor to human-caused warming, has increased by about 40% over the industrial era.” Quoted from GlobalChange.gov
Many were skeptical about Bill Gates in 2016 when he said that our greatest crisis would be a virus more than it will be a war. He attempted to alert the possibility of a threatening virus and encouraged taking precautions for the future. In December 2019 when the COVID-19 virus was first discovered globally and acknowledged, no one knew how to handle it. There was no plan whatsoever on what to do right away. To find a vaccine for such an imminent global threat it was predicted to take around two years. However, in a matter of a year, we have created and started to distribute effective vaccines against the virus. The reason why we have a vaccine manufactured in such a quick time period is that finding the cure was the top priority for every country on earth. Unlike COVID-19, if we wait till an event strikes and do not set our priorities to help with climate change, we will be too late to stop and try to fix our mistakes. We will begin to see the disastrous negative consequences of which we have never seen before!
At the Paris climate accords of 2015, each nation made a promise to reduce its contribution to global warming, which is also known as Nationally Determined Contributions. Due to some difficulties, it was made so that each country can choose how much of their emissions they want to reduce to their interests. Some countries have reduced a lot while some have only thought of reducing a little bit. This makes it difficult to quantify and keep track of the 2030-emissions goals. We need to set universal standards on how much of the emissions we should decrease.
From the latest assessment from the federal government, we found out that there is still a gap of 79 million tonnes of Green House Gas between the 2030 target emissions and the amount of Green House Gas that Canada is trying to achieve. We are nowhere near the amount to hold the global warming limit of 1.5C of which is found in the Paris Commitment.
Canada has shown that they know the consequences of climate change and are doing changes to help with it. They have made changes like pricing emissions from large polluters, planting trees, making investments in transportation, and supporting clean fuel standards. Canada’s share of global emissions has decreased from 1.8 percent in 2005 to 1.5 percent in 2016. These may sound like small numbers but it is a start. A start to a change first starts small but then goes big. Even with all these improvements, Canada is still ranked among the top 10 global carbon polluters for most of the last century. Russia, China, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa are all examples of countries that are contributing a dangerous amount to global temperature rise.
Canada keeps saying that we will have a climate change project done by 2030 or 2050. Yet, there is no project as of now. We are taking our time when it comes to dealing with climate change, as we are not considering it a threat and plan on dealing with it when the time comes. Canada now has electric cars, and they have electric charging stations all over Canada. However, both the cars and the charging stations are really high in price and usually unaffordable to the general public. This may incentivize regular middle-class citizens to use cheaper options, which causes pollution. Only a small number of people can afford electric cars like Tesla. There are also a lot of cons. For example, with regular cars, you can fill their gas in two minutes maximum, but for an electric car, it takes eight hours to fully charge. There are fewer charging stations, as well as having a shorter driving range. We need to make pros for electric cars to where the public would have no problem switching over. For example, lowering the cost of electric cars, or increasing the amount of refill stations. Additionally, having speeches to the public about climate change will bring more awareness to the people and they will try their best to reduce their carbon footprint.
On a global scale, we are cutting down 15 billion trees a year and replanting about 5 billion. This means we are cutting 3 times the amount of which we are replanting! As a result of this, we are losing 10 billion trees a year. At this rate, we are going to lose all of our trees very quickly. Trees take out the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but if they are gone the atmosphere will fill very quickly with gases, which leads to mass amounts of global warming.
If we invest more into a climate change project and show a lot more encouragement on how to reduce our carbon footprint, we can drastically reduce the number of carbon emissions per year. Canada should meet up with the rest of the countries and discuss how to work with climate change at the U.N. This should be considered and be done as soon as possible because the longer we wait the more harmful global warming becomes.
We as citizens of Canada can reduce our carbon footprint. For example, I can reduce my carbon footprint by turning off the water when not needed, using less plastic, supporting the planting of trees, and turning off lights when not in use or needed. Another major way I can help with climate change is by buying more locally produced food. I have 10 people at home and so we produce a lot more garbage than others. By buying locally produced food we produce less waste. I can also encourage my family and friends to do the same.
I want us to stop waiting and start acting. I want everyone to be aware of the upcoming events. If we don't stop polluting our mother earth she will die in our hands. Find out how you can help, and fund climate change acts. This may not be an instant fix but small steps then lead to big ones. Let's fix what we first started!
Thank you,
Sivan Kanthavel
