Climate Change - We are the PROBLEM & the SOLUTION (Animated Infographic)

 

this is earth the planet and our solar

system that we live on

however our planet is not on a good path

for continuing to sustain life the earth

is facing the accelerating detrimental

effects of climate change also referred

to as global warming well what exactly

is climate change climate change is

defined as a long term change in the

Earth's overall temperature with massive

and permanent ramifications climate

scientists believe that this isn't

caused naturally by the earth but by

human activity Earth's atmosphere

consists of gases such as oxygen and

nitrogen and other gases known as

greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide

nitrous oxide and methane incoming light

from the Sun hits the Earth's surface

the earth absorbs some of that energy

heating the surface of the planet the

rest of that energy gets reflected some

of that energy goes back on into space

the greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide

trap the energy and send it right back

to the Earth's surface heating it up

even more this is known as the

greenhouse effect now a little

greenhouse effect is natural to the

earth and is a good thing to have but a

large greenhouse effect can be

catastrophic causing a lot of that

energy to stay in our atmosphere and

heat up the earth at an accelerating

rate some of the main human activity

that amidst greenhouse gases are fossil

fuel burning animals agriculture and

deforestation and waste and recycle

pollution burning fossil fuels like coal

oil and natural gas as well as gasoline

for some of the largest pollutants of

carbon emissions not only that but when

fossil fuels are burnt and their gas is

mixed with heat they create smog a thick

air pollutant that is highly toxic

for example beijing smog is so thick and

heavy that you can't go outside without

some form of surgical masks or breathing

filter

the massive amounts of excrement

produced by livestock farms emit toxic

gases such as hydrogen sulfide ammonia

and methane into the air

methane is 23 times more effective at

trapping heat than co2 and roughly 80%

of these emissions in the u.s. come from

animal waste over 56 billion animals are

globally raised every year for food

purposes that's eight times more than

the human population and eight times as

much waste adding emissions to our

atmosphere land used for growing animal

feed and raising animals for food used a

staggering 30% of the Earth's landmass

in 2006 and the food production industry

has only increased since 7 football

fields worth of land is bulldozed every

minute to create more room for farmed

animals in the crops that feed them

bulldozing land and deforestation not

only emits greenhouse gases but it gets

rid of plants trees and forests the

things on our planet that actually

absorb carbon dioxide the more we

DeForest our earth the less carbon

dioxide it can absorb from our

atmosphere solid waste landfills are

some of the largest pollutants of

methane gas in the United States the

average person produces 4.3 pounds of

trash per day that's 1569 pounds of

trash per year for one person with the 7

plus billion people that live on the

globe that's eleven point six trillion

pounds of trash dumped into landfills

every year but how do we know that our

human activity is the cause of

accelerated climate change and not the

Earth's natural process our

civilizations produced a devastating 40

billion tons of carbon dioxide last year

which equals 700 trillion cubic feet of

co2 that's a little more than 100 Mount

Everest of co2 it's enough co2 to fill

the entire Grand Canyon five times or

it's the equivalent of 19 million Empire

State building's the largest natural

pollutant of the earth are volcanoes

if we take the largest scientific

estimate of carbon emissions produced by

volcanoes every year that's 500 million

tons of volcanic co2 but that's not even

2% of the nearly 40 billion tons of co2

that our civilizations produced over the

course of thousands of years our climate

goes to a natural climate cycle of

carbon dioxide being absorbed and

released into the atmosphere but once

the Industrial Revolution kicked in

burning fossil fuels became the

necessity of manufacture and production

plants and the co2 level shot up

violently have not slowed down since the

earth has not seen this much carbon

dioxide in atmosphere for millions of

years our planet with the greenhouse

effect is like a bathtub being filled

with more water than it can drain

eventually it will fill up with more

than it can handle but why should we

care about global warming and climate

increasing the earth's temperature has

risen 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit over the

past century and is projected to rise

another 0.5 to eight point six degrees

Fahrenheit over the next 100 years

animals and plant life are struggling to

adapt to these conditions for survival

if even one species goes extinct it can

create a domino effect with the food

chain no living plants or animals means

no living humans rising temperatures

makes the Earth's oceans become warmer

which causes something known as ocean

acidification which arises the acid

levels in the oceans from the carbon

dioxide reacting with the salt water

ocean acidification harms animal life

and is what's causing the death of the

Great Barrier Reef this is a problem

because about 1 billion people use ocean

life as their main source of protein

since the oceans are becoming warmer the

polar ice caps are melting which has

caused almost 65 percent of the polar

ice caps to melt since 1979

the earth loses on average 400 billion

tons of ice each year that's like a

giant block of ice 4 miles long on each

side 64 cubic miles that melts and is

added to the ocean the oceans filled

with too much water in the Shores like

in Louisiana can't hold all that water

and coastal regions get flooded and

destroyed

climate change also causes more frequent

and intense natural disasters such as

hurricanes floods tornadoes heat waves

and droughts so the question is how do

we stop this instead of burning fossil

fuels we need to convert to renewable

energy such as solar and wind power

which he met zero carbon emissions when

operating energy from the Sun and the

wind are infinite unlike fossil fuels we

will never run out of them more solar

energy falls on the earth in one hour

than all the energy that our

civilizations consume in one year civil

engineers from the solutions project

calculated that we could power most of

the world with only renewable energy if

we just actually decided to do it if we

cut back on people or station not only

does that reduce the amount of fossil

fuels burned but there will be more

plants and forests actively absorbing

carbon dioxide if we use more reusable

and renewable resources this will reduce

the amount of energy needed to create

new products this will also reduce the

massive amount of landfill dumping that

we do that all sounds like great

efficient and healthy ideas but how can

I help personally right now you can

drive an electric or fuel-efficient car

replacing your regular car with the

Toyota Prius the average person can

prevent the emission of about one tonne

of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere

now we all can't afford to just buy new

in different cars so to help you can

walk or bike places take public

transportation or if anything ease off

the accelerator and make your car as

efficient as possible

use energy-efficient lightbulbs led

lightbulbs use only a fraction of the

power of incandescent lightbulbs air dry

your clothes instead of using power

guzzling machine like dryers turn off

electronics or lights when you're not

using them eat less meat or no meat at

all by replacing an omnivorous diet with

a vegan diet the average person can

prevent the emission of about 1.5 tons

of co2 into the atmosphere reduce reuse

recycle and of course spread your

knowledge and concerns of climate change

remember climate change is very real and

is drastically affecting planet earth

our home and although we are the problem

we can also be the solution