The Climate Crisis

The Nobel Prizes have always captured world attention over these years, as many famous people have taken the prize for their contributions to humankind. But this year, the physics prize is quite interesting.

As many worldwide leading politicians and scientists have warned in recent years, climate change is a problem that needs global attention. However, the 2021 Nobel physics prize laureates have already done groundbreaking research about this very topic for the past 60 years. Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann, and Giorgio Parisi were announced winners in a news conference in Stockholm, Sweden. So why is climate change such an important topic?

First, we need to talk about the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming, basically, climate change. It all starts with the sun, the center star in our solar system. If it weren’t for the sunlight, our planet, Earth, would be frozen, a solid ball of ice. Anyway, the sunlight travels about 8 minutes to get to Earth, where it shines through the atmosphere and lights up everything. Carrying with it is heat.

OK, so what does this have to do with climate change? Well, it has nothing to do with the climate at all. But if we add other factors, things start to make some sense. There are compounds like carbon dioxide or CO2 that can trap heat, resulting in higher temperatures. These gasses are called greenhouse gasses.

So why is climate change such a critical problem, not only to scientists but also to many politicians who include it in their campaigns? To answer that, let’s look towards the two areas that are farthest away from the equator, the north, and south poles. These places are especially vulnerable to warming, as there are much ice and glaciers there. If you’ve ever tried leaving an iced drink in the heat of a hot summer, the result would be that the ice would melt pretty fast.

Unlike in an iced drink, on those icy islands live many animals, such as polar bears, seals, and penguins. If the ice melted, these animals would have nowhere to live. As these large ice chunks melt, the sea level would rise. Many ocean islands would risk getting submerged, not good for the residents there. And due to the warming climate, there would be more droughts, dried crops, and ultimately, not enough food.

So why are there that many greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere? Well, if you’ve ever seen a car that burns gasoline, you would find at least one exhaust pipe sticking out the back. That is an emitter of CO2. There are also other emitters. Agriculture, which means the raising of livestock and crops, contributes to about 24% of emissions. Transportation emissions are around 14%. The extraction, transportation, and refining of fossil fuels take up 10%. Manufacturing stuff also has an immense toll, a whopping 21%. And what would be the biggest emitter of all: The burning of fossil fuels to produce electricity， which take up 25%. Oh, right, and there’s also the burning of fossil fuels for other uses, such as heating, cooling, lighting, cooking, which takes up 6%.

So how do we solve climate change? First, cars should get changed to environmentally friendly by manufacturing more electric vehicles for sale. That way, new car buyers would buy the electric ones, lowering emission rates overall. And if you drive a car to work, you could consider switching to biking or walking since those have no emissions. Then there’s agriculture. Different people have different opinions on this. If you’re a meat-lover, it could be time to say goodbye and start being vegetarian. I’ve never tasted them, but maybe meatless-burgers could be tasty, too. And what about manufacturing emissions? Well, they are sometimes unavoidable in the industrial world, with much demand. However, you could reduce emissions by buying only the stuff that you need.

Then there’s the burning of fossil fuels to create electricity and do other stuff. This one isn’t so easy to solve since many people rely on it in their daily lives. But what about changing to more clean energy sources? Using wind turbines, dams, and solar power, we can create electricity without emitting greenhouse gasses.

Are you tempted to save the planet too? Well, we need more people to do that, from politicians who could pass environment-friendly laws; To scientists who could predict more of it, like this year’s Nobel prize winners. And most importantly, people like you who could take action against this crisis. So share this article with your friends, family, and co-workers, everyone you know. It’s high time that we stand up to face climate change and global warming! That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you for reading, and tune in next time for more.