The Ticking Time Bomb
Global warming is a subject that I am sure most of you guys have already heard about, as it is a topic that I’ve covered quite a few times on Astron. However, global warming is becoming one of the world’s biggest dilemmas ever, but why is no one doing anything about it? Well, in order to understand why, we have to understand how we got here in the first place.
Back in the 1800s, around the time of the civil war, fossil fuels took over America, becoming the main source of energy to power houses, pumps, and numerous other daily life essentials. During this time, no one was focused on the quality of the environment, as the technology produced in the industrial era has not shown any negative effects on the life around them, but rather showed positive effects on themselves. This would soon change after the civil war, as fossil fuel and coal burning plants would become widely used throughout the globe. By 1930, fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of energy had made up over 50% of what the world used to create power.
Sorry if the visual is a bit hard to read, if you would like to see details, you can click on this link: (Note: This link may not work for mobile devices.) GLOBAL POWER SUPPLY VISUAL
The first recorded announcement of global warming came in 1896, followed by another warning in 1938. Despite this, the economy still used these fuels. But no one cared – why?
Well for one, fossil fuels had already been a main part in creating energy, so taking down all fossil fuel and coal burning plants would not only cause a huge power hungry crisis as they took all of them down, but would also cost lots of money! As these plants were by now means cheap. And for two, well … there is a deeper meaning to the second reason.
In 1960, CFCs, or Chlorofluorocarbons, were discovered – a non-toxic, non-flammable gas. CFCs were primarily used in refrigerators and freezers to preserve food. This chemical was mass produced inside fridges and just like the fossil fuels, became commonly used amongst all countries. But studies around that time stated that all of the Chlorofluorocarbons produced by fridges had accumulated near the north and south pole of Earth and tore apart O-Zone molecules – the only things protecting us from the dangerous UV-Lights emitted by the sun. The worldwide ban on the O-Zone depleting chemical happened in 1987, The main reason guiding the ban was the fact that in the 1960-1980, scientists revealed that nearly the entire southern layer had a hole missing anywhere from 30-50% of the O-Zone that was once there.
That day, I believe that everyone learned a valuable lesson, but we also learned something else: The fact that we wouldn’t do anything about it until it became a problem we were forced to deal with. Just like the extinction of an animal, how we wait until they are highly endangered before acting upon the situation.
Resuming back to the 2000s, with the climate change crisis, we can see that there have been many organizations and campaigns to help global warming including the “Climate Change Movement” and “The United Nations Environment”.
To make sure that we do something about it, New York has also put up the Climate Clock, starting in 1999 would countdown to 2030, the year scientists believe is the point of no return. Despite some other sources saying that the end of the world is in 2050, it is best that we still try our best to reverse this and to make our world as it once was centuries ago.
