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| Climate change through Logging, Oil on canvas by Ashok |
There are two facts about climate change that most people
know and one that most do not know. First the two known facts:
- Most scientists believe that some climate change is happening
- Most scientists think that climate change is man made
This Scientist fully
agrees with the above two
facts. Now the one fact that most people do not know but this author/scientist believes to be a fact is:
Climate change is happening and it is most probably due to human activity i.e it is man made but the most likely cause is not increase of carbon emissions as assumed by lay persons and suggested by some scientists too. It appears to be primarily due to increasing deforestation on the planet and perhaps to some extent due to increasing concrete and cement based urbanization (even where it is unnecessary such as footpaths and surroundings of buildings that are at best left green, unpaved, pebbled etc.)
This is what Nasa (http://climate.nasa.gov/climatechangeFAQ)
have to say about climate change.
“Scientists agree it
is very likely that most of the global average warming since the mid-20th century
is due to the human-induced increases in greenhouse gases, rather than to
natural causes.”
Nasa has not said that scientists say that is because of
greenhouse gases but only that is likely to be so. Some scientists have stopped
merely at saying it is human activity without specifying what that activity is,
not wishing to say anything that goes against the popular sentiment on the
issue.
Nasa also says at the specified link,
“The industrial
activities that our modern civilization depends upon have raised atmospheric
concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane to higher levels than at any point
during the last 650,000 years.”
However, Nasa has not mentioned that deforestation (excluding
the ice ages) and urbanization has also occurred on the planet at a higher
level than at any point during the past 650,000 years
When a lay person and even some scientists hear that climate change is man made they often jump to the conclusion that the man made cause is carbon emission because carbon dioxide is a green house gas. Popular novels of earlier decades about the green house effect have reinforced this perception. The diplomatic silence of some scientists unwilling to clarify perhaps so as not to get involved in political controversy has not helped. In the meantime an alternative energy industry has emerged that has a vested interest in maintaining the impression that carbon emissions are primarily to blame. However, despite the immense amount of carbon emissions in the planet the
percentage of green house gases in the atmosphere still appears to be too small to cause any significant warming and this is discussed in an older blog post that you
will find by scanning through. In fact there is a positive side to the
increasing emissions – they help the green side of the planet to grow faster-
carbon dioxide is to plants what oxygen is to humans, and plants have as much
right to the planet as humans do, in fact more because they precede animal and
human life as a source of food and oxygen, and the humans have been giving them
a tough time over the past century or so.
Some persons have attempted to correlate the green house gases with climate change over the years and found a rough correlation. However, if they correlate reduction in forest cover on the planet with climate change they would discover a much closer and more accurate correlation. Large scale tree planting on the planet even in saline conditions (there are salt tolerant trees too, check out this link: http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2011/02/myth-that-fruits-flowers-and-trees-do.html ) is the way to go to mitigate climate change and perhaps also to moderate extremes that the world is seeing now. If fruit and food producing trees are chosen then the food shortage on the planet would be mitigated as well. Most of all new studies have shown scientifically something that humans have always known, green spaces help relieve stress and improve health (http://someitemshave.blogspot.in/2012/02/green-is-life.html). Thus more green would not only moderate extremes in climate but also the extremes in human weight - from obesity to malnourished - that is becoming a mark of modern times.
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