The rising global temperatures

While a few call climate change a hoax, most of us would agree with the majority of scientists that the planet is actually getting hotter. This has been very apparent since 2014. This article discusses the causes of rising global average temperatures, and how this phenomenon will affect all of us. There is a need for all humans to be less selfish, and work together  to reduce our carbon footprint.

While many people are appalled by the anti-immigrant politics of the US Republican party’s frontrunner in the presidential primaries, there has been a general state of muteness on the position Mr. Donald Trump takes with regards to climate change.  He and many of the conservative candidates deny that global warming, which is the persistent rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system, is a reality. Trump calls it a hoax. Another candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, claimed that there had not been any significant rise in temperature in the last 18 years. We Malaysians should be wholly embarrassed by our total disinterest in climate change; there is almost no public discourse on this.

The last two years have been the hottest years on record; January 2016 has been the hottest January on record according to both the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The average temperature was 1.13 degrees Celsius above the 1951 to 1980 NASA’s base. NASA and NOAA have been measuring many record hottest months in both 2014 and 2015, making these two years the hottest years on record. The United Nations backed Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which consists of 1,300 independent scientific experts from across the globe, is with a high degree confident that human activities over the past two and a half centuries have warmed our planet.

Most climate scientists attribute global warming principally to the greenhouse effect. Earth receives heat from the sun’s ray. The sunlight travels through the earth’s atmosphere and is absorbed by the earth’s surface. A certain amount of this energy is radiated back off the earth into space in the form of infrared energy or heat. However, the greenhouse gas (GHG) molecules absorb some of this heat and transfer it back into the earth’s surface. The greater the volume of greenhouse gases, the greater will be the amount of heat retained by the earth’s surface and lower hemisphere.

The main GHGs emitted by humans are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄) and nitrous oxide (N₂O). While carbon dioxide is the largest contributor amongst these GHGs, the heat trapping ability of these gases vary. Methane molecules are able to produce more than 20 times the warming effects of CO2 molecules, while nitrous oxide molecules produce about 300 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide.

Carbon dioxide is released by natural processes such as respiration, and from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, power generation and industry. As plants absorb carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, deforestation reduces the planets capacity to absorb the gas. It is estimated that the volume of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen by 38% over the last 140 years, and it is rising at an increased rate. The oceans are the earth’s carbon sink where 93 per cent of carbon dioxide is found. Marine plants absorb carbon dioxide at the surface, and then take the carbon down deep into the ocean when they die. The destruction of algae, vegetation, and sea coral therefore significantly reduces the ability of oceans to regulate global carbon dioxide levels.

Methane is generated naturally by bacteria during the decomposition of organic matter under conditions where oxygen is lacking such as decomposition of wastes in landfills, rice cultivation, burning forests and livestock farming. Natural processes in soil and chemical reactions in the atmosphere help remove methane from the atmosphere. Although fossil fuel combustion, burning forests and the operation of sewage treatment plants contribute to rising nitrous oxide levels, the largest contribution of nitrous oxide into the atmosphere probably comes from the usage of nitrogen fertilisers in farming. Micro-organisms remove nitrogen from the fertilised soil and release nitrous oxide into the atmosphere through a process called denitrification.

The immediate effect of the increasing levels of greenhouse gases is the general rise in global temperature making the Earth hotter. This has a knock on affect as well. For example, an increase in overall evaporation and precipitation could increase rainfall in certain regions while making other regions drier thus impacting agricultural activities. The rise in sea temperatures will also affect marine ecology. Finally, the melting of glaciers will see a rise in sea level as well, resulting in the submergence of low lying areas. The latter will result in widespread migration across countries.

No country is going to be left unaffected. What is disappointing is that, Malaysia was not represented by the highest officials at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris. Neither has there been any public discourse on this in Malaysia.  There is no denying the science; being a free rider will not help us either. The rainforests we destroy, the fossil fuel we burn and the rubbish we dump into large holes in the ground will all come back to haunt us. We do not need to bring down our quality of life to address this issue. Increasing awareness and lifestyle changes, as is currently increasing in several western European countries, will maintain our quality of life while minimising our carbon footprint. Without addressing climate change, there will be no sustainability. As a nation we need to rise to this challenge, else future generations will live in dystopia never mind developed status. We as Malaysians, and global citizens, have to rise above petty differences.