The Issue of Climate Change during the CoVid-19 Crisis

Climate change is happening, no doubt about that. And the one main thing fueling it? Global Warming. Climate change is real, and has been confirmed multiple times, by different investigations. And yet, all that we have done so far, really, is to demonstrate, battle climate deniers, and talk.

Many great people have said that a fight is not won by actions, but by words. And yet, this situation, which will influence generations to come, or perhaps even not, is one we should not simply talk of, and the other hand, we should all take action, doing something about it. Turning of the lights when leaving the room? Check. Using less water? Check. Trying not to let things go to waste? Check. Riding a bike, or a bus? –All these are examples of simple methods for all of us to “help” the climate. After all, a small action, done by millions, is a large one, no?

Still, the numbers aren’t lying. We not only have to cut down on these smaller things, we (humanity) also have to cut down on emissions in the industry, especially relating to air pollution. Gases are released into the atmosphere, thickening it up more and more. With the sun’s energy unchanged, a well-known principle is reproduced- the greenhouse effect. What we have used all those years to our benefit, for growing crops and other plants, is now turning on us. The greenhouse effect is the main factor, and really, one of the only, that create Global Warming. For months now, there have been protests all over the world, asking the big companies, and especially our countries to do something about this.

We still wish to keep an earth for future generations, for our descendants. Unless, of course, if we decide that this earth is no place to set a child upon. If we do nothing about it, it will soon become a sin to put a child on this world, making it go through all of this. Global warming, a world on fire. Would you wish to be born on a world destined to fall? I for one, would not wish to set a child upon a burning earth, make it go through all this suffering, making it clean up whatever their ancestors have done. This is madness!

Mother nature gave us life, decided to start humans, making us evolve from our ancient ancestors. And we, how do we show our thanks? By destroying nature. Deforestation. Pollution. Every day. Non-stop. It is sad. Not even sad, just disappointing. Sick. Would you wish to torture an animal to death? By yourself, probably not. But you are doing it. By only accepting the products derived from the industry, we ourselves are becoming part of the whole process, supporting those taking animal’s habitats, burning down forests, inhumane treatment of livestock, poor disposal of toxins, and animal testing. All this is done, and we pay for the products. By paying for the products, we are essentially paying them for what they have done. The animals they’ve killed. The forests they destroyed. The homes that were taken. Do not just blame it all on those big companies, you too are supporting them. The sad thing is, we know no other way anymore. We have grown so accustomed to these things, many cannot live without them anymore!

It has been proven, it has been accepted by most of the common population. And yet, the big companies move slowly. Making promises, deciding, “Oh, we could maybe take out this plastic bag, and replace it with a paper one”. Sure, these things also do contribute to making things right again, but will they suffice??? We still use fossil fuels, are burning. “Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us” (Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay) This phrase may only be from a post-apocalyptic book, taken completely out of context, but it makes sense. The trees burn, and we shall burn with them.

This year alone, around 80.000 forest fires have been sighted in the amazon. The amazon has already lost over 17% of its forests, in the past 50 years. And overall, it is estimated that we lose more than 18 million acres of forests. Every year. According to the WWF (World Wildlife Fund), deforestation alone is responsible for 15% of greenhouse gas emissions. This. Is. Sad.

Yes, the governments do 'something'. Ban straws, plastic bags, etc. But is it truly enough? With all the gases we have already released, how much can the earth still handle? How many trees do we need to plant to reverse our greenhouse emissions? Stopping to emit them, or lowering them, sure, sounds like a sound plan, no? Only that it is not enough. We would have to ground every single fucking plane on its ass, the president gets himself a tesla, and most of the population would have no way of transport. Also, lets stop breeding cattle & beef, if we’re at it already. One of the largest reasons for deforestation is soy plantations, to feed livestock. And what do they do? Release methane (CH4) into the air! As if we didn’t already have enough emissions from deforesting the amazon for their stupid soy. What else is there? Oh yeah, lets halt the industry, how does that sound. Let’s just shut down every single factory that emits gasses. Well, I know who’s going to die already. Definitely not my child, because that’s no place for my child to be. People would go crazy. And since all polluting transports are banned, there’s not going to be enough import/export. I guess we got to say goodbye to our tropical fruits that were flown in. Sure, we’ll probably be able to replace fossil fuels with cleaner fuels, especially cars, I mean, Tesla’s doing it. But airplanes, that’s a different story. Until now, I don’t think larger commercial aircraft have flown with clean fuel. And that’s something we won’t get around. And then there’s a touchy subject: the internet. How are we going to do that? All the server farms using energy, all the home computers, the ISPs, etc. It is the 6th largest energy consumer in the world, if it were considered a country. A single email of only 1Mb creates 19 grams of CO2, and google searches generate 16kg every second. So…what are we planning on doing. We couldn’t shut down the internet, right? I mean, it is possible, but it would be hugely inconvenient for all of us, right? So what else is there we could do. Maybe some alternatives?

So alternatives. Alternatives to shutting everything down, like every single thing. There’s always alternatives, right? I mean, can a tesla even handle Trump’s weight? (I mean of course all the armor, shielding, and equipment he’d have to have in his car) Well, we would still have to reduce our carbon footprint. Yes, we can still do it, without going to drastic measures as described above, but it would simply not be enough. Any other ideas? Planting trees? Did that, tried that, still trying it. I still remember in 5th grade, we all came to school with some money, and then our teacher “bought” our class a tree, on one of the online platforms. But when you think about all the deforestation, can we actually catchup on it, by planting trees? At around 10 years of age, it can absorb around 20kg of CO2 each year. And that is its pea age. A newly planted tree, a young one, can maybe manage 6kg per year. There’s a real difference there, isn’t it? The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated that we would have to start capturing and storing Carbon Dioxide, around 12 Gigatons per year, if we start in 2050. Our cutbacks are simply too slow, and we will not be able to reach zero emissions by 2050. So what we have to do, to keep the temperature rise below 1.5, or even 2 degrees Celsius, is to start collecting what we had polluted into the air. Systems are already in place in some factories, filtering their flue, or exhaust gas, mostly made up of Nitrogen (N2), water vapor (H2O), and Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Some systems can filter out the carbon after the combustion, and some even before the actual reaction, from the fuel. So trees are a viable alternative. And so is sucking CO2 out of exhausts. Okay. So we need to change our energy sources. No more coal, no more polluting energy. Let’s just do wind, solar, hydro, maybe even nuclear. Definitely sounds better than coal, unless, of course, another Chernobyl happens.

Getting ourselves out of the greenhouse: A story that has not done much until now. Trump doesn’t believe it. Children walk the streets instead of going to school, because of worry of their future. What shall this lead to? Heads of state have agreed to take action, even supporting different climate movements, but what are they actually doing? Are they actually doing anything? Greenpeace still has to climb oil drilling platforms, people still walk the streets, Greta still isn’t going to school on Fridays, and really, it’s just become a lot of promises. Recently, she received an award from the Nordic Council. She turned it down, thanking them, but stating that she was currently travelling. Then she went on to speak the truth about the Nordic countries. New permits for oil and gas. Living like there is no climate change. No signs of the changes required. A disappointment... Of the 195 countries that have signed the Paris Agreement, little have taken any real action. I don’t want to claim that they did nothing, but it simply is not enough. To successfully combat climate change, we must work together. However, what if this was meant to happen? Global warming, along with ice ages, have occurred in the past. The only question is; would we survive it? Are we supposed to survive it?

“The Earth is like an Organism, and humanity is a virus. What the earth is doing now, is getting a fever. One of two things could happen now. Either the organism rids itself of the virus, restoring its own health, or it dies, and the virus with it” -Gaia hypothesis

Are we meant to survive? We do not know. One thing we do know, is that we have to take action. One himself taking actions out of their own selfishness will not work. We must all come together and solve this issue. Most of the common people have already decided to come together, protesting against their governments, against the industry. What we need now, is that the governments decide to work with the people. And that other governments decide to work with them too. From the proposed solutions to global warming, and, furthermore, Climate Change, none offer a viable option themselves. And then the problem of unity. Some people will want the trees, while others prefer to live in the dark, with no electricity. We have to all enforce these ideas, all of us together, and all the ideas together. Will trees be enough to save us? And cutting our emissions? Even experts have doubt in the success of zero emissions. What about carbon dioxide capture and storage? Still not a completely safe option. What we must do, is work all those ideas together, in a managed, organized way. Cutting all of our emissions lower, planting trees, restoring nature, and capturing greenhouse gases. That is the way to go, the most promising option.

But what do we know of promises? They mostly aren’t kept. And yet, this is the way we should go. Our (future) children would want us to. To create a better future for them. A future worth living for. A future worth dying for. Ironic, isn’t it? A future both worth dying and worth living for. And yet, this is the most promising path. MIT researchers have just found a revolutionary way to cheaply extract carbon dioxide from normal air, at values as low as 400ppm. New “plant a tree” organizations just pop out of the ground like mushrooms. And there’s tips on being more climate friendly, cutting your footprint, all over the place. We just have to make sure that people actually use them. Even billionaires like Elon Musk have started donating trees, and some companies actually try to become more climate friendly.

Let’s just say what I always say when someone asks me about by work; “It’s work in Progress”. One sure hopes that this progress will go fast enough.