Humans - The Silent Enemies of Mankind

 

The strangest and the best creation of God, Homo Sapiens, started calling this Earth their home for the last six million years, and the current form of our ancestors evolved a little over 200,000 years ago. Civilization crafted its feet on the earth some 6 to 7,000 years and the modern human behavior flowered its roots a little for the last 40,000 years (Wilford, 2002). According to the most recent United Nations’ Worldometers estimate, the current world population is more than 7.6 billion. It is predicted that 11 billion people would inhibit on this earth and it is clear that the planet is not expanding. There is only so much space on Earth, not to mention only so many resources – food, water, and energy. A 2015 study in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, looked at the environmental impact from a household perspective. It puts consumption firmly in the spotlight. If we do not change our consumption habits, this would have a drastic effect on our environmental footprint (Ivanova et al. 2015).

 

The analysis showed that household consumers are responsible for

more than 30% of the globe's greenhouse gas emissions, and up to

80% of the world's land, material and water use. What's more,

the researchers found that the footprints are unevenly distributed

across regions, with wealthier countries generating the most impacts

per household. Human overpopulation is among the most pressing

environmental issues, silently aggravating the forces behind global

warming, environmental pollution, habitat loss, the sixth mass 

extinction, intensive farming practices and the consumption of finite

natural resources, such as fresh water, arable land, and fossil fuels,

at speeds faster than their rate of regeneration. However, ecological

issues are just the beginning.

 

 

 

 

Humans: The Silent Enemy of Mankind

 

The issue is not that some alien beings or someone else is causing harm to mankind, the problem lies with the selfishness of the humans themselves. The worst of the ecological harm comes from “Increased Global Warming and Climate Change”. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, "The largest single threat to the ecology and biodiversity of the planet in the decades

to come will be global climate disruption due to the buildup of human-generated

greenhouse gases in the

atmosphere” (CfBD, 2014, p.4). Some climatologists

argue it may be too late to reverse climate change, and

it’s just a matter of time before the Earth becomes

uninhabitable – if hundreds of years from now. 

While researching the relationship between global

warming due to Carbon-Footprint and a common man,

the Biological Diversity Organization determined that

the “carbon legacy” of just one child can produce

20 times more greenhouse gas than a person will save

by driving a high-mileage car, recycling, using energy
efficient appliances and light bulbs, etc. Each child

born today in the world will add about 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the carbon legacy of an average parent. The size of the carbon legacy is closely tied to consumption patterns. Under current conditions, a child born in the United States will be responsible for almost seven times the carbon emissions of a child born in China and 168 times the impact of a child born in Bangladesh.

 

The United States with its 325 million population, produces greenhouse gases at a per-capita rate that is more than double that of Europe, five times the global average, and more than 10 times the average of developing nations. The U.S. greenhouse gas contribution is driven by a disastrous combination of high population, significant growth, and massive (and rising) consumption levels, and thus far, lack of political will to end our fossil-fuel addiction. What about the role of undeveloped or underdeveloped countries of the world?  Even though the industrialization has not infiltrated in the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America .and Oceania, but they accounted for more than 60% of the global emission of the greenhouse gases

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the Greenhouse Effect?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Greenhouse Effect

 

Energy from the Sun that makes its way to Earth can have trouble finding its way back out to space. The greenhouse effect causes some of this energy to be waylaid in the atmosphere, absorbed and released by greenhouse gases. Solar energy absorbed at Earth’s surface is radiated back into the atmosphere as heat. As the heat makes its way through the atmosphere and backs out into space, greenhouse gases absorb much of it. There's a delicate balancing act occurring every day all across the Earth, involving the radiation the planet receives from space and the radiation that's reflected back out to space. It's this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing radiation that makes the Earth habitable, with an average temperature of about 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). Without this atmospheric equilibrium, Earth would be as cold and lifeless as its moon, or as blazing hot as Venus. There are several different types of greenhouse gases. The major ones are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide. It is a well-known fact that he t increase in the different greenhouse gases not only contributes to global warming but effects ocean acidification, smog pollution, ozone depletion and changes to plant growth and nutrition levels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main sources of overproduction of these greenhouse gases

 

 

                   Transportation:                                    28   -   29%                                     Automobiles, Ships, Aircrafts

                   Power Generation:                              28   -   29%                                     Burning Fossil Fuels

                   Industry:                                               10   -   11%                                     Burning Fossil Fuels

                   Commercial and Residential              10   -   11%                                     Burning Fossil Fuels

                   Agriculture:                                          08   -    09%                                    Livestock, Agricultural Soils

                   Land Use & Forestry                            10   -   11%                                     Act as Sink for CO2

 

These gases allow more of the sun's rays to enter the atmosphere. Some solar radiation is still reflected back into space by the outer parts of the atmosphere, but it's believed the amount reflected back is gradually reducing. At the same time, the greenhouse gases absorb more of the solar radiation that is reflected back from the Earth's surface - trapping heat and keeping it in the atmosphere. The ability of the atmosphere to capture the Sun's warmth is essential for life on earth. But if significantly more warmth is being captured, this is bad news for the planet.