The planet Earth is a place that has given generations before us the chance to live with the air to
breathe, the water to drink, the food to eat and places to live, and continues to do so for us and we hope
that our coming generations will be blessed to witness the same generosity that has been bestowed on
the generations before them. But, the pressing issue of climate change is slowly shattering these hopes.
The ignorance even by the educated towards this pressing issue needs to be addressed even if it means
taking baby-steps in the direction of clear understanding and robust solutions of the issue. It’s the
sensible, responsible, obvious, and most conservative thing to do, in the truest sense of the word.
With this article, we aim to bust the myths related to climate change and expand our knowledge and
awareness regarding the same.
Myth 1: Climate change and Global warming are the same.
Fact: No, they are not the same.
While climate change is the change in the patterns of the climate on earth due to man-made as well as
natural causes; Global warming which is the rise in temperatures, is the result of climate change.
With the passage of every year, the record high temperatures have increased consistently since the last 3
decades. Every decade has been warmer than the previous one and 2017 was the third warmest year on
record with an average temperature of 2.6 degrees above the normal value. This reality is supported by the
reports of the world’s top meteorological agencies like NASA, UK Met Office, and others.
Myth 2: Humans are not responsible for Climate change and in turn Global warming.
Fact: Human population and activities are responsible for Climate change.
Many people reason that even before vehicles and other technologies that produced greenhouse-gases,
Earth’s climate was continuously changing, which means humans are not responsible for Climate
change. While the fact is that the planet is accumulating more heat than it gives off because of
increasing population and human activities, thus causing the global temperatures to rise. It is a known
fact that the CO2 is imposing an energy imbalance due to the enhanced greenhouse effect, along with
various other activities like deforestation, industrialization, and many more.
Myth 3: Carbon dioxide (CO2) is not a pollutant.
Fact: Increased amount of CO2 in the atmosphere acts as a pollutant.
We are forgetting that to consume carbon dioxide, vegetation needs to exist, which unfortunately is
depleting because of human activities.
The trees and plants photosynthesize and convert CO2 to Oxygen thereby taking up carbon dioxide as a
way of forming energy with the help of the sun and water, but they can only do so much. While the
excessive amounts of this gas is a direct pollutant resulting in acidification of oceans and all the more
importantly the rising amounts of CO2 are linked to the greenhouse effect. When earth releases heat
from its surface, CO2 traps that radiation which results in maintaining the atmospheric temperatures;
this effect makes our planet temperature-wise consistent, but too much of this effect causes Global
warming.
Myth 4: Climate change does not affect me and it is an issue of the future, not the present.
Fact: It affects every living organism, and has been doing so for decades now.
You may think that climate change will affect only the low lying areas by increase in sea-levels or will
affect drought-prone areas in the Middle East or Africa, the harsh truth is that it affects us all.
Tornadoes, cyclones, and other extreme weather events have become common across the world, while
agricultural activities are facing challenges because of the unpredictability of the climate, after all, food
affects us all.
It might seem easy to think about the negative effects as later events, long after we are gone, climate
changes are not waiting for us, and thus our actions to improve the negative effects can’t afford to wait.
If we fail to act now to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, reduce deforestation and melting polar ice
which might raise the global temperature, even more, it will impact sea levels, food security and
habitats drastically.
Concluding, humans are safe only if they keep their home planet safe. We are who we decide to be, and
now ignorance and inactivity regarding the issues that matter to our planet will be deadly rather being
forgiven once again by our Mother planet.
