Climate change, ecological imbalance, and environmental impact are the terms we listen to more often nowadays. Maybe not all of us can relate to these the way environmental scientists do, but these are as much a part of our lives lately. And these are not just a matter of debate but a real-world problem that is affecting our lives perpetually.
How and why? Climate change is the result of the tapping of the sun’s warmth (known as the greenhouse effect) that is caused by human activities that involve carbon emissions. This gives birth to the self-seeking man-made climate that is destructive for life in every sense.
Due to our unsettling negligence and insatiable desires, this is going worse with time. This is almost like a life project in our hands and we are making a mess out of it.
How alarming is it?
Global warming is continually causing a rise in atmospheric temperatures and sea levels. The environment is losing its natural form and physical entity due to shrinking glaciers and thawing permafrost. As per the scholarly climate change facts and studies, it will start producing heat waves and oceanic acids in the approaching decades. This will lead to water suffering, fire threats, drought, salt invasion, and storm damage to terribly upset the life on earth.
Knowing this, responsive governments and environmentalists are making efforts to reverse the impact on nature and restore green and sustainable practices at length. There’s a lot to be done here at a sustainable pace and effect.
When you have the roadmap and a model established the execution gets easy. The solutions around this have been planned for long and these have resulted in great schemes of transformation for climate change reversal.
There’s a host of proactive associations and program initiatives that keep the ball rolling for the cause. This has proven effective to suppress the dire conditions that prevailed in past. There are targeted initiatives and corrective programs to eliminate the threat and restore the damage and these are breeding real good results.
Of the various efforts that are made in the direction, these are the most effective ways, approved and applied at scale to reverse climate change.
1. Refrigerant Management
Every cooling system that operates on chemical refrigerants discharges heat as a part of the chilling process. This is damaging to the environment. Specifically, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are the major culprits as they put a lot of strain on the ecological system by damaging the ozone layer. This is one of the most prominent climate change examples and can only be dealt with by adopting practices of sustainable living – one of which is refrigerant management.
This issue was addressed in Kigali, Rwanda in 2016 in a global summit that received delegates from 170 countries who aimed at building a protocol to curtail the impact on the ozone layer. This intervention resulted in an agreement that decided to phase out the generic use of HFCs.
However, this would take years to apply in the common space but public kitchens and condensing units have already received and implemented the substitute for HFCs and the results are fairly effective.
2. Wind Turbines
For those who don’t know, wind energy is not an easy solution. It takes a lot of investment and planning to set up wind turbine systems. However, if it is established at its fuller capacity in a region it can supplement the non-renewable and non-ecofriendly sources of energy quite effectively.
If we look at the latest stats, we have around 3, 14,000 turbines built across the globe. This contributes to around 3.7 percent of the total energy supply. As per Statista, the total capacity of installed wind energy at the global scale reached around 743 gigawatts in the year 2020.This is going to get bigger and more feasible with time as the technology around it would support better engineering and application possibilities. And this would substantially replace the fast-depleting fossil fuels and help us fight against global environmental change and climate crisis.
3. Tropical Forest Restoration
Forestation and tree plantation are widely discussed topics on environmental forums. There are large-scale efforts made by governments and agencies for restoring green life.
This is important as when we lose forests we lose trees that consume the excessive CO2 in the atmosphere. With tropical forests being cleared out for expanding human settlements and due to the growth of consumerism, the last few years have witnessed a monstrous growth in GHG emissions.
These concerns are now being addressed at a massive scale as forests are being raised and restored expansively. The state-run forest preservation committees and volunteering activists are aiming at a forest restoration mark of 865 million acres of land to be restored globally. This is going to bring viable change as forestation is considered to be the most competent solution against global warming.
4. Solar Farms
Have you heard about the term ‘clean energy’? Well, the only way we can survive on this planet not harming its resources is by adopting clean or alternative sources of energy. Clean energy is the consumable power that is generated through renewable, zero-emission sources. One of the best examples of this is solar energy.
Solar energy can be harnessed and deployed in the consumable form through solar photovoltaics and the semiconductor mechanics that make solar panels work. This is one of the sustainable sources of natural, clean, and climate neutral energies that can help control the greenhouse effect considerably.
But this needs to be done at a massive level by building a huge energy generation and processing system serving at a comprehensive capacity. This is why thousands/tens of thousands (or sometimes even millions) of solar power generation panels are set together as solar farms to produce a huge amount of solar energy to meet this requirement at length.
5. Silvopasture
Silvopasture is the practice of raising an environmental system that supports the existence of trees, forage, and grazing in a natural ecosystem to promote ecological balance. The known traces of this practice dates back 4500 years in the Iberian Peninsula.
As per the latest forest sciences data, Silvopasture is practiced on over 350 million acres of land worldwide. Silvopasture stresses raising trees in natural captivity and creating a single sustainable and symbiotic system where life breeds and survives in every form. In this whole process of the intermingling of animals and plants, the soil is an essential component that plays a significant role in bringing climate change.
Realizing its impact on climate change reversal, World Bank and other institutions are providing funds for natural conservancy through Silvopasture. Which further strengthens its socio-economic role to act against the climate crisis.
Endnote
There are different causes of climate change that are derailing ecological balance and affecting life on earth. Climate change solutions like these are helping governments and environmentalists to bring a contributive change in the direction by running climate change projects to control planetary warming at a large scale. So, we can leave a better world to live in for the generations to come.
Get to know how you are individually affecting climate change by measuring your daily activities at home and work with carbon footprint calculator.
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