The point of no return is reached! What can we do now?

The world has past the point of reverting our poisonous gas levels to a non critical condition. What do we do now?

What is Carbon Dioxide?

Carbon Dioxide or otherwise known as CO2 or the stuff we breathe out. This gas also comes from extraction and burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gasses, wildfires and other natural processes like volcanic eruptions. This gas was not supposed to be an air pollutant or at least was not considered one till the presence in the atmosphere is significantly increased due to human activity. The combination of the increased CO2 from burning of fossil fuel from vehicles and the reduction of trees that can convert CO2 to O2 cause the excessive amount Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Due to the excessive amount of it, CO2 is now part of the greenhouse gasses like nitrous oxide (N2O) and methane (CH4), both from water vapor that trap heat and cause global warming. They let sunlight through the atmosphere, but they prevent the heat that the sunlight brings from leaving the atmosphere.

Why Should I care?

So from what I said, there are many different reasons for the CO2 levels in the air being so high. Some of them are nothing we can control like the volcanoes but that is something that happens every so often that it is not as significant as the other activities that we do.

The extraction and burning of fossil fuels and certain wildfires are the true culprits to this increase in CO2 in the atmosphere. When I mention certain wildfires I mean the 85% of fires that are caused by us, not by a certain bush that gets caught on fire by accident. From a simple spark of a barely extinguished campfire to the sparks left from illegal fireworks, anything that could carry a spark to a dead bush is all to blame for our reckless behavior. Of course the media or news outlets often failed to talk about the real culprit so most people do not know the amount of natural wildfires are way lower than the amount of wildfires caused by us. Of course most of our wildfires, at least in California are made out to sound about the deaths and the devastation of the calamity. I talked more about this in a previous blog about wildfires and news outlets for my midterm project at UCLA’s Sci Art, and I will talk more about how I made my project in a later blog post.

Going back to the extraction and burning of fossil fuels that contributed to the excessive amount of CO2 in the air, most of it is caused by the automotive industry. Worldwide emissions of CO2 from burning fossil fuels total to about 34 billion tons (Gt or giga tons). The Fossil fuel combustion for energy accounted for 73% of the U.S. greenhouse gasses emissions and for 92% of the U.S. CO2 emissions. This overall extraction of CO2 is nothing less than a bomb to our sky’s ozone layer as Carbon dioxide prevents the formation of new ozone molecules in the troposphere. Higher CO2 levels in the upper atmosphere may be contributing overall to the closing of the ozone holes over the poles, as stated by the CO2 Coalition. Also, the alternative route to use electric cars that seemingly going to the right direction, is actually going to the wrong direction because of the use of lithium batteries. Lithium batteries not only add to the devastation of the dirt due to the amount of mining but also ruins the plant life that is supposed to help mitigate the amount of CO2 in the air. I am not saying to stop car production, even though that would be great, but it is not realistic. We need to find a better solution.

Looking at other works

Although the amount of CO2 has been at a critically high point, not enough focus and attention is given by public and government. There has been some attempt to raise awareness by public media, like in the NewsRoom show. But, it's not enough. We don't make it a deal to talk about this issue all the time. A television show gives a good portal for scientists to explain a scientific issue that most people doesn't know about till it was too late. Although some can just say that a show is for storytelling purposes only but with more with enough focus and frequency, it can be used as a tool to explain difficult to understand issue such as global warming that allow more people to understand the concept better. An example of the gap of people's understanding of global warming is how majority still believes that the notion of Earth getting warmer is just a social construct. One might not feel the air getting warmer but the environment does. This then affects the amount of snow, rain, drought seasons, sunlight, growing seasons, habitats, and migrations to be all out of control. The slight difference in temperature causes the change in where animals can or cannot live even if it is less than one degree. Yet the majority of people don't care and think this is just crazy talk. The truth that is hard to swallow is that we cannot do anything about the rise in our CO2 Levels.

If we passed that point, then what can we do?

Although we have reached new highs in the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere and that it will take thousands of years to revert it back to the non poisonous level, we can still help delay the amount of Co2 being pumped out. The analogy of this phenomenon can be seen in some of the uncurable deadly disease that most people learn to live with it like diabetes. Although there is no cure for diabetes, people learn to control their sugar intake to regulate their blood sugar level so that they can live a full and long live. If you don't control it with diet or insulin, diabetes can kill people. But if you control it then you could live a long and full life like everyone else. With enough awareness in public, we too can control our CO2 level and live a healthy and long life for generations to come.

Last Take Away

This is an article not meant to tell everyone to become climate change activists but to acknowledge that this is happening and we can still do our share to help stop it from getting worse too soon. Mitigating in our own ways and areas is the best way to do this.

-signing off.