Reversing Our Climate Crisis Dan Brook Like an overheated car, an overcooked dinner, or a person with a fever, we are overheating our precious planet to dangerous levels. And the number 1 cause of weather-related death worldwide is heat. New Zealand declared a climate emergency — joining dozens of other jurisdictions — with its popular Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern calling climate change “one of the greatest challenges of our time”, adding that we must “act with urgency”. We need to do so, as well. Our rapid industrialization of production, power generation, agriculture, and livestock, especially since the Industrial Revolution, are associated with the overproduction of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — the three major greenhouse gases. These gases in our atmosphere trap more heat from the sun, raising average temperatures. The oceans are absorbing more carbon dioxide, thereby acidifying them. This is affecting all countries and all species, including us, creating a climate emergency. Although it took hundreds of millions of years to form dirty and dangerous fossil fuels, we are burning through them. Despite our knowledge of safe and clean alternatives — especially solar, wind, hydro, wave, tidal, geothermal, hydrogen, algae — we continue to over-rely on fossil fuels, notably oil, coal, and gas. That makes us fossil fools. Climatologists assert that 350 parts per million (ppm) of atmospheric CO2 is a threshold level of carbon dioxide, which was below 285 ppm for thousands of years, yet it surpassed 418 ppm on June 1, 2020, the highest level in three million years. That same month, the Arctic soared to over 100º Fahrenheit (38ºC) for the first time in recorded history. Houston has been ravaged by five “500-year storms” in the last five years. In 2020, wildfires ravaged the western US, massive storms hit the Koreas, the Philippines, and the Gulf Coast. None of this is normal, but it might be our “new abnormal”. A rainforest takes thousands of years to develop its rich biodiversity, yet we are destroying these life-giving forests with alarming rapidity, greed, and arrogance. Deforestation means that the forests can no longer absorb carbon dioxide, emit oxygen, filter water, provide homes for people, fauna, and flora, produce food and medicine, be available for exploration or recreation, or display their beauty. Over 80% of the burned Amazon Rainforest is later used for grazing cattle.
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