Disclaimer: The contents and opinions of this blog post do not represent the views or values of Honours Review as a publication.
Climate change: a topic dominating everyday discussions worldwide. In fact, THE topic of the present day. But first things first: What is Climate Change? Is it real or “fake news”? How will it affect our daily lives? Too many questions, not enough time. As a natural science student, I feel that the perception of this topic is a bit different when compared with ‘normal people’. Here, I propose to lead you through the story of Climate change, through my perspective. We’ll look deep into what it is Climate Change, the real risks on our ecosystems, what has been done to fight it and, lastly, which alternatives to secure the future of our planet could be taken.
Introduction - Hello my name is...
Contrarily to what most think, Global warming and the so feared Greenhouse effect are natural processes occurring throughout the eras. Periods of extreme heat followed by ice ages happened multiple times. However, what makes the present warming period different from all the rest is that this one is aggravated by us, humans. Its inevitability is almost undeniable, but the rate at which it occurs could have been mediated, controlled.
In essence, Climate Change is a broad concept, not definable per se, but explained by a set of alterations related to the climate. Among them, ozone depletion over Antarctica; increase of the sea level, of the CO2 or methane emissions, of the global mean temperature; mass extinction of several species all over the world and moreover, extreme climatic calamities (hurricanes, fires or floods).
Naturally, humans in general tend to consider themselves as the most intelligent beings, the ones upper in the food chain, the most powerful ones. Therefore, all resources should always be available to be explored in any way. However, this is not how it works; the planet Earth is the home of countless species: animals, plants, fungi, and infinite bacteria. The coexistence of us all is fundamental for the equilibrium of the ecosystems and the ability to share the same environments for distinct resourced must be achieved.
What have we done? And mostly, what can we still do?
Regarding the ozone depletion over Antarctica, several measures were taken in the last decade. For instance, efficient use of energy, the 3R’s strategy – reduce, reuse and recycle – and the decrease of aerosols use. Fortunately, the damage of the ozone layer in the stratosphere was partially reversed. On the other hand, all the other consequences are yet to be solved, and by each passing day, the severity of them tends to rise.
The increase in sea level comes as a direct consequence of the increase in global temperature. The glaciers are melting and species such as polar bears, sea lions, seals are struggling to survive in a changing environment. Not only the lack of physical land to inhabit is a threat to their survival, but also the absence of prey limits their existence. Therefore, there is a need to explore other territories, compromising their own survival. An example is a polar bear found in Siberia in June 2019 [1] which was weak and undernourished. Another perspective of the same side of the coin is the disruption of the balance of salt/freshwater and the accumulation of carbon dioxide within seawater. As known, the sea is the major regulator of the air and its associated characteristics, molecules, temperature, humidity. Most of the toxic compounds released by human activities such as industry, cars, intensive farming, and livestock units are captured to the sea. This is an apparently irrelevant function of the sea, however with catastrophic consequences. Marine life is being highly damaged by this unbalance: part of the existing corals is irreversibly lost and, similarly to what happens inland, the species must adapt to new, more favourable environments, thus, there is a migration process linked with these changes (usually towards the North). When we associate the salt/freshwater disturbance, the accumulation of CO2, and the increase of water temperature with an intense fishing activity and not enough laws or plans to protect the wildlife, it is clear that these ecosystems are being over explored and disturbed in a way which the consequences are yet to be fully understood.
On top of all, humans still choose to dispose of their waste in the wrong places. Unfortunately, sooner or later, everything ends up in the ocean, and not only fishes but also birds, turtles, and other invertebrates are affected. Activities from illegal washing of oil tanks on the open sea or discarding of untreated residues from factories into rivers to dropping of cigarette tips on the floor or the overuse of non-reusable plastic are avoidable. Currently, there is a plastic island laying on the Pacific Ocean and that is not even the worst problem. The microplastics ‘swimming’ around the ocean are undetectable by the human eye, however, very hazardous to marine life.
Solutions are needed! In fact, various alternatives are already in place. They can be consumer-directed, such as the use of personal metal straws, the sale of toothpaste without an involving card box, bulk selling or the fee applied for plastics bags in supermarkets. Even changes in the daily diet, by decreasing the ingestion of meat and fish, replacing them by vegetables or other substitutes, already compromises livestock units, which are responsible for the release of methane, a ‘toxic’ molecule, to the atmosphere. But large-scale approaches are also being used worldwide. Recently, a team of students improved a bacterium, Ideonella sakaiensis, reported in 2016, able to turn plastic into water by a two-step reaction [2;3]. Boyan Slat, a Dutch young inventor, who at the age of 18 started the company Ocean Cleanup, aiming to eliminate plastic pollution by 70% on the Pacific Ocean by 2025. Basically, it consists of a pipeline on the surface of the sea, seen from above, moving with the natural currents. Underneath there is a ‘skirt’ that traps the plastic [4]. In Copenhagen, there is a facility that, among several actions, burns out the waste from the city and converts it to electric energy, powering several households – Copenhill [5]. Furthermore, there are numerous brands trying to act sustainably and transforming waste into new products [6-10] or using more sustainable raw materials or biodegradable plastics, for instance, created in massive bioreactors.
Conclusion - take your own responsibility
It is more and more essential for each of us to take responsibility into our own hands and change the little things in our day-to-day life. A small change by each of us means 7 billion small changes… If we don’t act fast, the ‘blue planet’ maybe a little less colourful. We are still on time to reverse the effects described above, either by valuing waste, i.e. convert waste materials into more useful products including chemicals or fuels, by using ‘greener’ energy sources, by changing our eating and shopping habits, or overall, by being more conscious about our ecological footprint.
References
https://www.publico.pt/2019/06/19/p3/noticia/urso-polar-exausto-avistado-siberia-percorrer-centenas-quilometros-1876921 [Accessed at 06.11.2019]
https://www.popsci.com/plastic-eating-bacteria/ [Accessed at 06.11.2019]
https://www.ubergizmo.com/2019/06/scientists-bioengineer-bacteria-eat-plastic-turn-to-water/ [Accessed at 06.11.2019]
https://time.com/5389782/boyan-slat-plastic-ocean-cleanup/ [Accessed at 06.11.2019]
https://www.archdaily.com/925966/copenhill-the-story-of-bigs-iconic-waste-to-energy-plant [Accessed at 06.11.2019]
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