There are many global warming causes that are affecting climate change, as a human phenomenon, is caused by excess greenhouse gases, which are caused by global temperature and adverse reactions to biomes and species.
In the last century, Earth temperature raised 0,5°C and the projections are not good: the global temperature can raise 4°C, which is enough to cause mass extinction.
How does global warming happen?
Planet Earth under a natural greenhouse effect process. This is because of the famous ozone layer (O3) that has existed for 400 million years.
This layer is extremely important for life to happen, because without it, the heat and its radiation from the sun will arrive, Terraiam life due to high temperatures.
This is not a healthy amount, of ultraviolet rays that arrive on Earth, would escape quickly if not this last this thin is the only benefit that is part of that calorie globe.
The problem is that after the industrial revolution, the human species began to release an excessive amount of gases, as they absorb the greenhouse effect itself and remain in the atmosphere, increasing the temperature of the globe as a whole.
The engines of this set are varied and each region has its characteristics. See what the main ones are.
When global warming started
A brief review of how we got to this critical point of climate change. Humanity began to alter the course of the planet’s natural warming between the 18th and 19th century.
The main cause was the Industrial Revolution, whose great discovery was the steam engines, which required a huge burning of coal to run the machinery of factories for scale production. This big burn produced a huge amount of carbon dioxide.
This information was attested by the Australian National University study on the beginning of global warming, but factories were not solely responsible.
With the exponential increase in production, it was necessary to find a way to scale the logistics and make these products reach every corner, and then steam locomotives appeared.Economically, it was the best thing that could have happened. However, the damage to the environment also escalated.
Engine technology spread, and the United States was the first to copy English technology. This change allowed the country to leave the rural condition and become much more urban, as the working class clustered around the factories, where there were jobs.
The Petroleum
In that same historical period, oil was discovered. Although there are records of ancient civilizations, such as the Mesopotamians, that had contact with oil, it was not until 1800 that Edwin Drake first drilled a well to obtain the resource and began to carry out significant extraction of this fuel.
Oil has the ability to break down into various materials, such as gasoline, diesel, rubber and asphalt. Due to its versatility, oil has much more added value and was the protagonist of the energy matrix in the 20th century, as well as the protagonist of political conflicts over its use.
Who’s really responsible for climate change?
With this context, it is easy to see who had the greatest environmental impact since the 18th century. Countries like the USA, Russia (which has a large oil exploration) and the United Kingdom, which were the world’s factory for many decades, are largely responsible for the climate collapse.
In this ranking, China occupies a prominent place next to the United States. The country did not participate in the first industrial revolution. In fact, Chinese economic development began in the 2000s. However, the speed with which the country burned fossil fuels to sustain this acceleration placed it as one of the main responsible for climate change.
Chart of countries that pollute the most
In this 2019 image made by the Rhodium Group, it is possible to check the status of which nations are among the most polluting on the planet.
Brazil, a country of continental dimensions, deserves to be highlighted. Unlike the countries that entered the list for the excessive use of coal burning and oil use, Brazil entered the list for rampant deforestation caused by agriculture.
In Brazil, there is a high rate of criminal fires in the forest to expand the space for planting (especially soy) and raising cattle, which are the main sources of economic growth in the country.
What is happening to our planet? Everything about climate change
Main global warming causes
To summarize, the main causes of temperature change are:
- The electric energy generation through the burning of fossil fuels and coal;
- Deforestation of forests for cattle raising and planting;
- Mining and the process production of consumer goods;
- The carbon emissions by factories and automobiles in the burning of fuels;
- The ultra-consumption culture, which generates tons of garbage that emit CO2 and methane in its decomposition.
Let’s dig in all these causes:
Power generation
As you may have read in Bill Gates’ book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster”, electric energy is at the foundation of every nation’s development.
Electric energy provides everything we need to have quality of life, such as appliances, heating systems and, of course, for electronic batteries, such as computers, tablets and cell phones, which are essential tools for living in a fully digital world.
However, the way most countries generate the energy to sustain this lifestyle is toxic to the planet.
The main source of electricity is thermoelectric plants, large boilers that burn coal (also known as fossil fuels) to generate energy.
The problem is that this procedure emits tons of carbon into the atmosphere, which retains much of this CO2.
This happens because of the ozone layer, which is essential for life on planet Earth, as it retains part of the solar radiation (heat), keeping the temperature at acceptable levels for life.
However, CO2 is a gas that has the ability to retain heat in itself. Therefore, the more CO2 in the atmosphere, the more heat.
This does not mean that the days will always get warmer. There is a difference between climate (general trend) and weather (the temperature observed each day).
So, global warming can even mean colder days in some regions, as it affects the climate, destroying the cycle of rains, winds and making extreme events happen more often.
To solve this problem, the planet urgently needs to change its sources of energy generation and use more sustainable sources, such as solar or wind energy.
Factories
Factories are one of the main parts of today’s economy. Systematized and mass production of products is a reality all over the world.
With factories, we have two big problems. The first, best known, is the excessive amount of waste, as many factories do not have an adequate treatment system for all the waste generated in the industry.
Another problem for factories is energy generation. As seen in this text, the energy used by most nations of the world is thermoelectric, and factories are no different.
The amount of coal burned to keep machines running all hours of the day, every day, has been responsible for a large part of the CO2 emissions into the atmosphere since the time of the first industrial revolution — and that number only increases as production increases in countries that have undergone recent industrialization.
Gasoline
We live in a car-centric culture. It is the dream of many people, when they reach the age of majority, to have their own car.
This item, which was sold as synonymous with independence, is a major villain of climate change. In the United States alone, 15 million cars were sold in 2021 alone. In countries like Brazil, for example, there is one car for every 4 people.
The big problem is that cars run on gasoline, which is a petroleum product.
The burning of this fuel is what powers the vehicle’s engine, releasing, of course, tons of CO2 into the atmosphere every day.
Today, the distribution of electric cars is beginning to take its first steps, and it is a goal of most automakers to eliminate the production of gasoline-powered cars by 2030, replacing them with electric cars.
However, it is important to remember that if the generation of electric energy does not come from a clean and renewable source, humanity will continue to feed the same problem, however, with a different source.
Deforestation
Deforestation is a global reality and an urgent demand on the environmental agenda.
Among its causes, agriculture is responsible for 80% of the felling of trees.
The objective is to have huge pastures for raising cattle, “raw material” for the production of consumer goods such as meat and milk, which are the basis of food for a large portion of the population.
In addition, illegal deforestation by garimpeiros has become a growing problem. In this modality, miners set fires in areas protected by law to devalue the land, as it loses its biodiversity, and exploit the soil in search of ores for sale.
You might be thinking: what’s the problem? After all, a culture was created that deforestation is related to the country’s development, but that’s not quite the case.
Recalling his biology classes, the process of respiration of plants is done through photosynthesis, that is, the capture of CO2 from the atmosphere for the production of O2 (oxygen).
In this sense, trees are largely responsible for the balance of available carbon in the atmosphere, making a process of “cleaning” the air. With the advance of deforestation, we are losing this capacity.
There are several solutions to this problem, the great challenge is to deal with the economic pressure that landowners place on the government: after all, they use the contribution to the development of the nation as an argument.
However, there are already farmers who defend regenerative agriculture, which can not only restore the fertile capacity of the soil but also be economically attractive. We recommend watching the documentary “Kiss the soil”, which covers the subject in detail.
Another important action to combat deforestation is to defend the indigenous territory. Indigenous communities around the world bear the greatest responsibility for defending forests and stopping the destruction of one of our greatest weapons against climate change.
How to fight global warming
It is necessary to have a realistic view of the current world to ensure that the planet’s regeneration process can take place. Unfortunately, individual actions do not have the necessary impact to avoid environmental catastrophe.
There are two laws that need to be observed: politicians will do everything for political capital and entrepreneurs will do everything for profit.
Although there is a lot of controversy about reformist action plans, the Hourglass Project believes that attacking these two fronts can be a quick way to innovations and solutions.
Wanna be part of it? You can check Hourglass Planet Healing program and become a member.
Also, pay attention to the candidates you are going to vote for, look at their proposals for the environment and whether there is a plan to reduce and eliminate carbon in the atmosphere.
On the other hand, buy from companies that have a heavy investment in carbon offsets, that have a clean production process. Unfortunately, only when the environmental impact means financial impact, market players will pay the necessary attention.
You can also ally with those who are already in this fight and contribute financially or with volunteer work to NGOs and institutions that are focused on reforestation, clean energy, species preservation and solutions to capture carbon in the atmosphere.
