The temperatures are rising.
Earth is becoming warmer and warmer.
Carbon dioxide levels are only going up.
This isn't fake news. This isn't a hoax. This is real.
And it's time to do something about it.
"Dating back to the ancient Greeks, many people had proposed that humans could change temperatures and influence rainfall by chopping down trees, plowing fields or irrigating a desert." (History.com)
Climate change had happened many times in our world, but happened because of human activities is the first time in the history of our planet. Back in 1712 when the first Steam Engine was invented by the famous British inventor Thomas Newcomen (Please don't tell me you do not know him as you learn Industrial Revolution in Middle School). And this invention had set humankind to a new era and new world --- by using new energy resources; or more specifically, the combustion of fossil fuels.
Afterwards, in 1824 French physicist Joseph Fourier found out the "greenhouse effect" which he stated as "The temperature [of the Earth] can be augmented by the interposition of the atmosphere, because heat in the state of light finds less resistance in penetrating the air than in re-passing into the air when converted into non-luminous heat." (BBC). Then there is Irish physicist John Tyndall who came and added few extra information to the "greenhouse effect" phenomena. He basically completed the work of Joseph Fourier by illustrating water vapor and certain other gases which are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and ozone causes "greenhouse effect".
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Fig.1. Illustration of Svante Arrhenius discovering the effect of "greenhouse effect".
Surprisingly, people actually knew about the climate change back in 1896, but in little different way. Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius stated that the coal burned in the period of Industrial Revolution will cause the overall temperature of Earth increase in one or two Degree Celsius as it enhances the natural "greenhouse effect".
Progression
As the burning of fossil fuel within industry caused carbon emissions reach one billion tonnes per year in 1927 and the overall human population reaches three billion in 1960, world's attention has arisen to the potential problem of the carbon dioxide emission. In 1965, a US President's Advisory Committee panel made the public to understand the importance of reducing carbon dioxide emission by saying that the "greenhouse effect" should be taken seriously and addressed.
First United Nation environment conference issued in Switzerland, 1972. This occurred mainly because "chemical pollution, atomic bomb testing, and whaling" (BBC) which resulted in the installation of United Nations Environment Programme. It seems that people started to face their "enemy" and forms first resistance force against "darkness".
Well known IPCC which is the strongest allies force that against the "darkness" of climate change and carbon dioxide emission, or in other words the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change formed in the year of 1988 and published its first assessment report on the evidence of Climate Change in 1990. It suggested that due to the human activities of releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by combusting fossil fuel have resulted in the rise of global temperature by 0.3-0.6 Degree Celsius. And this has set a milestone in defeating Climate Change(BBC).
At the moment
Thanks to the intellectual people through last three centuries, people finally understood the potential dangers of climate change and excessive carbon dioxide emission. However, some of us understood but there also some of us who isn't really willing to stop the actions.
In 2006 the carbon dioxide emission from human activities reached eight billion tonnes per year while IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report stating that the issue with global temperature rising nowadays is 90% due to human activities.
As this fighting between "Stop or No Stop" for carbon dioxide emission continuous, nothing will be resolved as very small part of people fighting for saving our last "shelter" in this universe and the majority are walking by and saying: "Nah, Who cares? I will not see the apocalypse before I will be dead." Therefore, are you one of those who is trying to save our "home" or the one who... doesn't care about anything?
Work Cited:
"A Brief History of Climate Change." BBC News, BBC, 20 Sept. 2013, .www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-15874560.
"Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?" NASA, NASA, 4 Apr. 2018, climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
