Since the Industrial Revolution, humans have released over 1.5 trillion tons of carbon dioxide or CO₂, into the Earth's atmosphere. In 2020, we dumped 37 billion tons of CO₂ in atmosphere. That's 50-60 percent more than the year 2000 and almost 3-5 times as much as 50 years ago. And it's not just CO₂, we're also pumping out huge volumes of other greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide and methane.
Combining all of our greenhouse gases, we're emitting 51 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents each year into the atmosphere. And emissions keep rising. But they need to get down to zero. In recent years, the consequences have become more serious and visible. Almost every year we break some horrible record like We've had more heat waves, the most glaciers melting, and the lowest amount of ice ever recorded at the North Pole.
The only way to limit this rapid climate change is to decrease our collective emissions quickly, but not by speaking instead by taking actions. But although all countries agree on this goal in principle, nobody agrees who is responsible or who should bear the heaviest load. The developed countries point at their own efforts to reduce emissions and the fact that the large developing countries on the rise, especially China, are currently releasing much more CO₂.
On the other hand, developing countries argue that emissions by the West are lifestyle emissions, while for developing countries, they are survival emissions. Others call rich countries hypocrites that got rich by polluting without prudence and now expect others not to industrialize and stay poor.
"We are the first generation to feel the effect of climate change and the last generation who can do something about it," said by Barack Obama, it's said well but it looks good when implemented. I think this a major issue that no-one takes seriously and we means humanity should take some actions regarding it, not only by speaking but alao by implementing it.
So who is responsible for climate change and CO₂ emissions? And regardless of the past, who needs to do the most today? What are the effects of it? What are the ways it can be prevented? In this series we will discuss more such significant questions.
