Fossil Fuels Are One of The Causes of Climate Change

Though in the past century, we have achieved many accomplishments, such as flying airplanes and building computers and so much more, not everything we have done to this earth has been beneficial. To be more specific, what society has actually ended up doing is harming the earth. Man-made climate change has occurred because of the amount of destruction that has happened on this planet. In an article written on Stephen Hawking’s beliefs, he concludes that “humanity only has 100 years left before doomsday” (or the last day of the world’s existence). Stephen Hawking and many people agree that we need to change how we act within society and fast if we wish to protect this world. We have a large ability to fix the problems that have grown, but we need to start now.

The main cause of climate change is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is when heat is retained into the Earth’s atmosphere by carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and other gases.

One of the big causes of greenhouse gases is fossil fuels. Fossil fuels became a growing problem in the 1800s right after the Industrial Revolution, where after and during this era, many factories were built, leading to fossil fuels to be a necessity for the economy and function of a country. The main issue of fossil fuels is the burning of fuels, such as oils, natural gas, and coals. Though these fuels help to produce electricity, they also cause the production of many gases that can be harmful. With an excess of these gases, this affects the temperatures within the atmosphere.

Preserving the energy and limiting the use of fossil fuels is quite simple, even within the household. Turning off the lights, reusing products, and recycling are the first step to the reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Limiting the use of fossil fuels and changing the dependence of them begins with an individual and their choices.

While lessening the manufacturing of the gasses can be difficult because electricity is a necessity to live, a factor that can slowly become decreased is deforestation. Deforestation is a large problem because when a tree is cut down, all of the carbon dioxides within the trees are emitted into the atmosphere, along with all the other gases. Scientific American wrote an article on the problems of deforestation on the climate by describing the millions of acres that continue to be cut down every year. The article progresses by discussing the fact that through deforestation, there is more carbon dioxide being added to the atmosphere than the total amount of carbon dioxide produced by every car on the world’s’ roads.

Deforestation is difficult to slow down for an individual. What a community and an individual have the ability to do is a lot less than what large companies have the capability of doing. Though an individual can use less paper, one can plant trees, one can easily just recycle more, but certain companies can do so much more. Scientific American continues to state that many tropical countries are trying to slow down deforestation within their country by joining a program called United Nations’ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD). In this program, they work to provide many ways for people that wish to keep the forests, but still having the ability to benefit the economy (Scientific American). REDD has raised over 117 million dollars, raising money to decrease deforestation in countries such as Africa, Asia, and South America. Through REDD, Brazil has decreased deforestation by over 40% since 2008. With REDD, deforestation is being slowed down and it is helping the environment exceedingly, yet the problem continues to plague us.

Many people only see the benefits of cutting down trees and having factories, because these can lead to many profits and many benefits. Deforestation can lead to many job opportunities, more land for civilization and industrialization cites, and places to produce for food. Without the greenhouse effect, life on earth would not be successful, because temperatures would not be monitored and mediated to a safe temperature. Though all of this is true, the bad definitely outweighs the good. People need to discover when deforestation and greenhouse gases are too much.

The effects of climate change are substantial The disadvantages of climate change are greater than the benefits. There is a loss of polar ice caps(glaciers), there is a credible rise in the sea levels, and there have continually been more intense heat waves. If we think about all the living things on the surface of the earth, maybe some people would take climate change more seriously. In Antartica especially the polar bears are losing their homes, sources of food are becoming harder to find, and they are growing closer to becoming extinct. Not only are animals in danger, but humans are too. Humans are closer to doomsday than ever before. It is time to make a change.

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