Global warming

My son! No planting till the rains fall”. This was the response from my mother when I reminded her “planting season is approaching”. Gone are the days when we could predict seasons, she said! And I remembered, in 1968 the Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the earth’s moon, and safely returned to earth. But while in space they took a photo of the earth, and the image was breathtaking; a glowing marble of blue oceans, and green forests, brown mountains brushed with white clouds, rising over the surface of the moon. But today this glory is no more because of the phenomenon that we have all come know – GLOBAL warming. Today I will share with you facts of global warming, the destructive nature of global warming, and the remedy to global warming.

1.      Global warming is real

Think of your parked car, in the middle of the sweltering heat of the afternoon. On opening the door, currents of hot air blow against you forcing you to quickly turn on the air conditioning system. This is a small, yet effective example of a process called the GREENHOUSE EFFECT. This effect involves a certain body of matter, be it a car, a green house or the earth itself, absorbing heat from another body, in our case – the sun. So back to your car, the glass enables the absorption of the heat, and traps the heat inside. Similarly, the earth's atmosphere contains GREENHOUSE GASES such as Carbon Dioxide, Ozone and Methane which absorb the radiations we receive from the sun, and trap the heat from it inside.  These gases also prevent the heat on the earth’s surface from going away. The more the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the more the heat gets trapped, and the more the temperature rises on the Earth and the oceans. This is GLOBAL WARMING.

2.         Global warming destroys life and livelihood

Increased evaporation of water, increase the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, hence increasing greenhouse gases. Looking at the damages of Hurricane Katrina of New Orleans, in 2005, and Hurricane Sunday in 2012 – the results are DEVASTATING, DEVASTATING, DEVASTATING. An estimated 1,836 people died in the hurricane and the floods, total property damage from Katrina was estimated at $81 billion. Scientists predict global temperatures to go up about 1.4 – 5.8 degrees Celsius by 2100; Back home Mt. Kenya has lost over 92% of its ice in the last one century. And very soon we will have a continent without glaciers. These are some of the consequences of global warming.

3.         Global warming has a remedy

One way is by cutting down on the greenhouse gas emissions. The CO₂ being produced by factories and by burning of fossil fuels is more than the carbon dioxide being used up by plants. Plant more trees, reduce deforestation, and use alternatives sources of energy instead of fossil fuels, say no to plastic bags because they are not biodegradable. I urge all of you to educate your classmates, your colleagues, your parents, your friends, your sons and daughters. Tell them what’s at stake. Speak up at town halls, speak up in church groups, and speak up in PTA meetings. Broaden the circle of those who are willing to stand up and save the universe. Global warming is real, the effects of global warming are with us and there is a remedy to global warming, I hope my mother will one day plant before the rains fall, because she will rest assured that the rains will fall not whenever they shall but rather when they should.

(Content disclaimer: some content  borrowed from relevant sources)