Have you ever seen some movies which are related to disasters like “2012”, or “The Day After Tomorrow”? In those movies, unusual weather makes a lot of people die and ruins buildings. Can you believe that this can happen in not that far future? Actually it is happening in some places in the world today. In the beautiful island country called Maldives, the land is going down to the ocean because of the rising ocean level by Global Warming. The average altitude of Maldives is only 2m, and IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) said that no one can live in Maldives.
Also when El Nino caused by Global Warming happens, flooding affects areas near Peru and droughts affect Australia. If we keep this situation, scientists say that around the year 2100, 70% of the human population will be dead for lots of reasons. As you can see, Global Warming gives us lots of damages, but also if we make efforts, we can show the healthy earth to our descendants.
The problem of Global Warming is the rise in average temperature of the surface of the earth. The reason why the temperature of the surface of the earth is rising is because of greenhouse gases which people emit. Greenhouse gases block the heat from the earth, so the earth is getting hotter. People emit them from everyplace like the factories’ stack, cars’ discharge stack, and even you are emitting greenhouse gases right now by using your computer.
The best way to reduce greenhouse gases is to try to save energy. Because about 75% of electricity energy comes from thermoelectric power plants, and processes from producing thermal power, it requires lots of petroleum and coal to burn. Then lots of greenhouse gases are emitted. That means if you waste your electricity, you are emitting greenhouse gases, so here are some things that individuals can do.
For the first thing, unplug electronic devices when you’re not using them. You can save energy, and even your money. The second thing is to use public transport or your bike. You can keep the oil from your car and if you are using your bike, you can exercise as well.
Then what can public places like school do? For the first thing, when I came to Donovan in the summer, I realized that Donovan was keeping the temperature to low so some students were wearing long sleeved shirts. Instead of doing it this, set the air conditioner in appropriate temperature and in winter, set the heater in lower temperature and wear thin clothes in many folds. For the second thing, is use a fluorescent lights instead of incandescent lights. They are more effective to save energy and they go longer than incandescent lights.
Then what nations can do? For the first thing, they should invest in the substitute energy industry. When substitute energy like solar heat energy, wind power energy, and atomic energy develops, then we won’t need to burn petroleum and coal so it doesn’t make greenhouse gases. For the second thing, nations should do the campaigns. So citizens can know what they can do and how this is terrible.
Right now, lots of bad things are going on in the world by global warming as I mentioned. If you take an interest in global warming and try to save energy, then your little help can save the earth.
By Patrick Choi