Is human activity causing climate change?

The answer is YES. Over 97% of scientists agree that human activity causes climate change.

Rick Perry – the US energy secretary remarked in a recent congressional hearing that “to stand up and say that 100% of global warming is because of human activity, I think on its face, is just indefensible”. Human impacts such as the creation of carbon footprint have led to the rapid increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and global warming.

The increaing levels of temperature and carbon dioxide 

“Extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature” – IPCC fifth assessment report.

The increases in temperature and carbon dioxide levels that we have seen over the past century are extreme and growing rapidly. This is called the Global Warming issue. As carbon dioxide and other air pollutants accumulate in the atmosphere, they absorb sunlight and the sun’s energy bounces off the earth’s surface, causing global warming. Normally, this radiation would escape into space, but these contaminants, which can remain in the atmosphere for years to centuries, trap heat and cause the earth to become warmer. Greenhouse gases include heat-trapping pollutants such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, water vapor, and synthetic fluorinated gases, and their effects are known as the greenhouse effect.

“Extremely likely that more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature” from 1951 to 2010 was caused by human activity, which was stated by IPCC for policymakers in the 5th assessment report in 2013. It meant that there was between a 95% and 100% probability that more than half of modern warming was due to humans. On purpose or not, we are emitting the worst level of carbon dioxide. Humans are severely destroying the planet without thinking of the consequences that we have to suffer in the future.

Human activity has risen the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere

Humans emit heat-trapping gases including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and various chlorofluorocarbons. Among these, carbon dioxide is of the greatest concern to scientists because it exerts a larger overall warming effect than the other gases combined. The rate of carbon footprint is the highest in 66 million years, and the amount of warming in the coming decades is expected to be 250 times greater than the average warming over the past century. This proves that we are in danger if we don’t have solutions to prevent this issue.

Human-caused CO2 emissions from fossil fuel consumption, cement production, and deforestation have upset the balance since the 19th century, adding CO2 to the atmosphere faster than it can be absorbed by the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans. Over the last 50 years, about 25% of total CO2 emissions have been absorbed by the ocean, making sea water more acidic, and 30% by land, owing by increased plant growth stimulated by rising atmospheric CO2, increased nutrient availability, and responses to warming and rainfall changes, among other factors (though the mix of these mechanisms remains unclear). The remaining 45 percent of emissions were absorbed by the atmosphere

Take action to stop climate change

The effects of global warming can be felt all across the world. In recent years, extreme heat waves have claimed the lives of tens of thousands of people all across the world. Since the 1990s, Antarctica has lost roughly four trillion metric tons of ice, a worrying harbinger of things to come. Some experts believe that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at our current rate, sea levels could rise several meters in the next 50 to 150 years, inflicting havoc on coastal towns throughout the world.

If left unchecked, these impacts will be widespread and exacerbated with the extinction of many animal species, water shortages and displaced communities. It’s never too late to fight for climate change. No matter what age you are, young or old, student or politician, activist or non-activist, you can make a difference to change the world.  Whatever you do, the most important thing is that we must take action to stop it.

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About Oxychain: Oxychain is an on-chain solution to create interoperability between the carbon markets and the digital world with software infrastructure for on-chain compensation. Oxy Labs, the company behind it, aims to bring transformative solutions to the conventional Carbon Markets with focus on capillarity, accessibility and interoperability.

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