Save our planet

by Muthu Meenal
(Chennai, India)

Saving our planet a bit at a time

Saving our planet a bit at a time

Global warming is an alarming problem which is a concern to every nation.

Greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature that the earth experiences because certain gases in the atmosphere get the energy from the sun. Without these gases the temperature would escape back to space and living on the earth would become highly impossible with the temperature dipping to lower than 60F.

Hence Greenhouse Effect is a Desired Effect.

Global warming is caused by the rise in the temperature. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere act like a mirror and are reflected back to earth. The higher the concentration of green houses gases like carbon dioxide the more heat is reflected back to the earth.

The emission of carbon dioxide has enormously increased in the past few decades mainly in the form of fossil fuels like petrol, oil, kerosene etc.

The increasing usage of vehicles and coming up of industries which do not have proper way to emit the smoke created are all cause for the fossil fuel emission.

Deforestation is the second major cause for this alarming problem. cutting down of trees and agricultual land and converting them into residential or commercial plots is the reason for increase in carbon dioxide emission.

The Answer

The only way to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide is to avoid deforestation, to put it in simple terms we have to start growing more trees. Trees absorb all the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and emit the healthy oxygen.

Minimising or avoiding the usage of plastic could help the environment in a greater way to bring down the rising temperature levels.

Avoid using of vehicles to the near by shopping malls also, instead walk down to the near by shopping places or work place. It brings down the emission of fossil fuels and also a good physical exercise.

Plant more trees and avoid cutting down trees and using plastic. Lets save the planet

Barry's Response - All of these are good tips to follow for more than just environmental reasons. Thanks for your input, Muthu.

Let's expand on this a bit...

It's like trying to bail a sinking ship with a tea cup. Great ships are turned by small rudders.

You pointed out the real cause, greenhouse gases. On a bad day, Earth would be colder than Siberia. There are too many people who turn Earth into a steam bath. A meteorologist's secret:

The climate has always changed. Earth's orbit wobbles (called Milankovitch cycles), and volcanic eruptions add spice. Fossil fuels add a layer, but how much?

What about global warming?

Average temperatures have risen 1.1°C since 1880. Changes in land use (hello cities, goodbye forests), solar cycles, and ocean patterns all interact. Models struggle because nature loves chaos. Here's what's real:

- Air pollution kills millions - fine particles (PM2.5) from industry, cars, and fires go deep into the lungs. It's today's problem, not tomorrow's.
- Besides sun cycles, cosmic rays, and clouds, carbon dioxide levels rose too.
- It's easy to sell fear with headlines, but it's hard to judge.

Science, freedom, and stewardship last a long time.

You're right

Trees don't argue politics. They shade streets, pull carbon, and breathe life into them. Walking frees your lungs a little, shrinks smog, and builds muscles.

Plastic bags drift in oceans like ghost jellyfish, turtles, and seabirds. Refillable bottles and cloth bags can help. Instead of guilt,

Let's spark awe:


🌟 What if we planted a rainforest in the schoolyard? How about rebuilding oyster reefs? Green belts in cool cities?
🌎 Stewardship means respecting the Earth and the truth. Droughts aren't all climate doom. There's no collapse caused by floods. You don't have to crush freedom and economies. Christianity teaches stewardship: we serve creation, not destroy it or worship it.

There's no need to save the Earth. It's survived asteroid hits, ice ages, and dinosaur tantrums. We need to stop thinking small, doing bad science, and forgetting our place in the world.

Prepare your walking shoes, tree sapling, and brain. And if you like, collect your thoughts on this and post them below.

Search this site for more information now.

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starstarstarstarstar 		WATER,WATER,WATER.
by: Gerry aka KOTO

Aloha:

You are so right. The only things I would like to add is that when you walk to do the shopping, bring you own bag and, along the way, look into the street water drains you pass. If you see rubbish there, think about communicating with local officials and/or media and starting your own public awareness campaign.

Find out the last time the drainage system was cleaned, not just flushed into the waterways but cleaned out properly. Too many people with the power to take care of this matter only see what they see. For the most part, storm drains are out of sight and out of mind.

If we can all at least start with our elixir of life, the water in the underground pipes, we start sustaining life. And remember that if you contaminate our water, you can forget about the rest.

OUR WATER IS THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO FIX, AND BY FIXING THE WATER PROBLEM, MANY OTHER THINGS WILL FALL INTO PLACE. WE ARE WHAT WE EAT AND DRINK; TAINTED WATER WILL KILL US ALL.

From Barry - Gerry, you bring so much wisdom! You hit the nail on the head: water isn't just a resource. It's lifeblood. Let's get into the science.

Storm drains collect oil, metals, plastics, and microbes. Think of a lazy river with antifreeze and cigarette butts. Without proper filtration or cleaning, this stuff goes straight into creeks, rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Here's how it works: On one square kilometer, one mm of rain can produce 1,000 cubic meters of runoff. That's 1 million liters. If just 0.001% of that carries trash or chemicals, you get 10 liters of direct pollution every time it rains. You can see why fish look grumpy when you multiply that by every city in the world.

There's also a change in rainfall patterns. Flash floods flush even more urban grime into waterways as El Niño and La Niña intensify precipitation extremes.

Upstream, clean water fixes air, food, health, and soil downstream. If we don't do anything, contaminated water evaporates into dirty clouds, which rain polluted drops.

Here's where we get creative: Could every storm drain have a QR code that links to its "health report"? Wouldn't it be cool if students adopted local drains? What if every shopping trip was a trash scavenger hunt?

It all starts with brave, simple acts - and maybe rubber gloves.

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Thank you to my research and writing assistants, ChatGPT and WordTune, as well as Wombo and others for the images.

GPT-4, OpenAI's large-scale language generation model (and others provided by Google and Meta), helped generate this text.  As soon as draft language is generated, the author reviews, edits, and revises it to their own liking and is responsible for the content.