The earth and its climate are the two cornerstones of building a safe home for more than a million species including humans. This pair is the greatest asset we as humans could ever have and we must take appropriate actions to preserve it for the good of ours, future generations, and other species. 

Nature vs Human: Who has a bigger hand?

As humans, we must take responsibility for damaging the climate and the extinction of rare species. Ever since the industrial revolution, carbon emissions into the atmosphere have increased with every passing minute. The rise in urbanization and industries like manufacturing, automobile, transportation and logistics, and every other industry has a huge impact on climate change. 

On the other side, natural disasters and processes like volcanic eruptions, solar storms, and solar energy is impacting a lot on the earth’s climate. As a result, extreme weather conditions, poor to worse air quality, and global warming have been shrinking the lifecycle of species all over the planet.

In this article, we are about to refer to the top reasons that affect the climate the most.

Reasons Affecting the Climate

Here we are dividing the reasons caused by Humans vs Nature itself. Let us starts with us.

Human Causes 

All human activities have directly or indirectly (but massively) contributed to global climate change through these two reasons below:

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are increasing at an alarming rate over the past couple of decades which now seems unstoppable. The volumes of all greenhouse gases have increased because of human efforts. 

The concentration of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide in the earth’s atmosphere is the highest right now over the last 800,000 years. These greenhouse gases have increased the greenhouse effect and have risen the temperatures all over. 

Fossil fuels include coal, petroleum, natural gas, oil shale, bitumens, tar sands, and heavy oils. The burning of these fossil fuels impacts the atmosphere and the climate more than any other human activity. 

Some facts (from EPA REPORT) are depicted below to show the severe levels of such gases in the atmosphere:

Carbon dioxide: Every single year, 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have increased by more than 40 percent since pre-industrial times.

Methane: Human activities increased methane concentrations during most of the 20th century to more than 2.5 times the pre-industrial level.

Nitrous oxide: Nitrous oxide concentrations have risen approximately 20 percent since the start of the Industrial Revolution, with a relatively rapid increase toward the end of the 20th century.

Reflectivity & Absorption of the Sun’s Energy

Farming or cultivation, construction of cities, buildings, plants, and deforestation process on a bigger scale - such activities have resulted in irreversible environmental impacts. Potentially enough, it has already changed the reflectivity of the earth’s surface. 

This has led us to face an extreme shift in weather conditions. Local warming or cooling effect are being faced by different parts of the world where the life of species is gradually degrading. Urban areas have now become hotbeds or heat islands compared to rural areas which are less populated and polluted. 

Why are urban areas warmer and how does it affect the reflectivity? Well, man-made structures like buildings, pavement, and roofs tend to reflect less sunlight than natural surfaces. On the other hand, deforestation can increase the earth’s reflectivity globally by replacing dark trees with lighter surfaces such as crops.

Natural Processes

It is understood that humans have a bigger hand in ruining the climate, let us see which natural processes affect it as well.

Volcanic Eruptions

Volcanoes have played a noticeable role in climate, and volcanic eruptions released large quantities of carbon dioxide in the distant past. Some explosive volcano eruptions can throw particles (e.g. SO2) into the upper atmosphere, where they can reflect enough sunlight back to space to cool the surface of the planet for several years.

However, volcanic dust including certain particles does not stay in the atmosphere for long periods and hence they bring little change to the climate compared to human activities.

Changes in Earth’s Orbit & Rotations

Changes in the earth’s orbit in the solar system and changes in the axis of the earth’s rotation have already taken a toll on the climate. For example, the amount of summer sunshine in the Northern Hemisphere is affected by changes in the planet’s orbit. 

Apparently, this is believed to be the reason behind the ice ages of the past. The periods between the ice ages were relatively warmer due to the positional changes in the orbit and rotational changes of its axis.

Frequent Changes in the Solar Activity

Sun is the mega source of energy that constantly emits it. We all know that. And the changes in the sun’s energy output (light and gigantic flares) bring the change in the intensity of the sunlight reaching our planet. This way, it also affects the climate and atmosphere of the earth. However, variations in solar energy have played little role in the climate changes observed in recent decades. 

Since 1978, satellite technology has helped us measure the energy the earth receives from the sun. The concern is that there has been no rise noted in the amount of solar energy emitted from the sun. 

Final Say

It makes it crystal clear that the rise in global temperatures is not due to the sun, but other reasons explained in this article. And we have to shoulder the blame and take the responsibility to control the wrong happenings and preserve what we are gifted for a better life.

Fortunately, there are families, agencies, and communities who have been giving their blood and sweat to bring global awareness. HUGSI and C40 work in close collaboration focusing on different aspects with a mutual goal. 

What HUGSI Does?

We quantify the urban green space of global cities and provide rankings based on their Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The in-depth data helps us to analyze the cities which are getting greener or greyer. Our expert team is also ready to help with expert recommendations to anyone from the municipality or city development agency as and when needed.

This is what we at HUGSI are working on - bringing awareness to the government and municipalities of global cities by encouraging them to access seamless data from our platform.

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