ACTIVITY CODE: Q1W6-A
Toyhacao, Asherah Manasseh V.
TOPIC: Gas Stoichiometry
G12-G.Zara
FIXING BASIC IDEAS
Position Paper
“THE SCIENCE BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE: GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS”
I.
Introduction
Are people the major cause of climate change? According to NASA, climate
change is a global phenomenon which is created by trapping gases on Earth’s
atmosphere. These heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor,
and other nitrous oxides are commonly known as greenhouse gases. In addition,
the trapping of these gases is called the greenhouse effect.
Human activities like burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil, and clearing of land for
agriculture and industry– in which carbon footprint increase also reside – has
increased the concentration of the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases on the
atmosphere eventually causes the Earth to:
(1) Become polluted,
(2) Increase sea levels, and
(3) Experience global warming that lead to melting of glaciers.
With that being said, we can all agree that we, people, are the major cause of this
global phenomena—climate change. Human beings are part of nature and all
activity that impacts the environment also impacts us.
II.
Counter Argument
Earth’s climate has changed naturally over the past 650,000 years, moving in
and out of ice ages and warm periods (Renee Cho, 2017). According to Cho,
scientist can track these changes in climate by examining the ice cores in Antarctica
and Greenland. The rising of the cores have shown that rising CO2 and rising
temperatures are closely linked.
Warming happened in the past long before when humans were not still around.
Factors like volcanic eruptions can affect the heating and cooling of the Earth. The
main reason why Scott Pruitt, administrator of Environmental Protection
Agency said that human activity was not the primary contributor of climate change
but he knows that people play a role. One event that will support this claim was the
eruption of Mount Pinatubo in Philippines in 1991. By the time it exploded, its
particles prevented the full energy of the sun from reaching the Earth’s surface and
created a cooling trend for several years.
However, volcanic eruptions alone do not tell us that climate change happens
because of natural phenomenon. One example is the greenhouse gas methane.
Some methane is emitted naturally from wetlands, sediments, volcanoes and
wildfires but still the majority of methane emissions come from oil and gas
production, livestock farming and landfills. A study was conducted by some
scientists wherein they identified “human fingerprints” that have been left in ocean
and Earth’s atmosphere. By that, they agreed that today’s climate change is caused
by humans putting too much carbon in the atmosphere.
III.
My Argument
Human activities contribute greatly on climate change. The Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate change – a group of independent scientific experts – has
concluded that there’s more than 95% probability that man-made greenhouse gases
have caused our planet to warm.
There are many things that people do and never know that what they’re doing is
harming the Earth. One great example is our lifestyle. When we have places to go
to, what mode of transportation do we use? Is it walking? Or we drive cars? Some
may answer that they walk, some may say they drive. However, people mostly
choose to ride or drive to conserve time without knowing that driving increases their
carbon footprint. As we all know, carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse
gases emissions caused by the activities we do. It includes gas emissions that came
from manufacturing factories and in this case, transportation. The smoke coming out
of vehicles is a greenhouse gas that increases pollution. Therefore, the more you
own stuff like cars, the higher your carbon footprint will be. The higher your carbon
footprint, the higher you contribute in pollution.
In addition, our choice of food also increases our carbon footprint. The food
system, like most other human systems, relies on fossil fuels for much of its energy.
Moreover, methane which is a greenhouse gas is emitted when producing rice.
On the contrary, because of Pandemic that we are experiencing today, emissions
of greenhouse gases were lessen. According to some scientists, air quality in certain
regions has improved by the time when the means of transportation have been
stopped. A reduction in commuting due to work from home policies has also played
its part in reducing carbon emissions (Jason Pareja Jauregui, 2020). The impact
of today’s pandemic on climate change was great but I cannot say that it’s a nice
way of reducing our carbon footprint for the reason that it cost us many lives.
IV.
Conclusion
We can’t stop climate change; instead we can stop its effect from getting worse.
Every person can help protect our environment and ensure the health of our climate
by reducing our carbon footprint. As I’ve said in my argument, the higher the
carbon footprint the higher you contribute to pollution. We should change our
lifestyle. First is our mode of transportation, if possible we should learn how to
drive less. Walking and biking is not that bad. In that way you reached your
destination, you saved the environment and you get a little exercise. Another is we
should learn how to eat less meat. We all know that meat has a huge carbon
footprint and bonus it’s not good for our health.
Doing this little things will not only help our environment but also yourself. Do
your part and save this planet.
REFERENCE
Jason Pareja Jauregui. (2020). One Young World. Retrieved from www.oneyoungworld.com:
h ps://www.oneyoungworld.com/blog/what-effect-covid-19-climate-change
Renee Cho. (2017). State of the Planet. Retrieved from blogs.ei.columbia.edu:
h ps://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/04/04/how-we-know-climate-change-is-not-natural/
h ps://climate.nasa.gov/causes/