By Katherine Abrayev,Staff Writer
Greenhouse gasses are heating up the earth causing our world to grow hotter day by day. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the greenhouse gas that is getting emitted the most, making up 80 percent of the harmful greenhouse gasses. CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere when burning coal and fossil fuels, when driving gas powered cars or trucks, and when flying planes. In this extremely industrial world, millions of metric tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere every day. This surplus of CO2 in the atmosphere is slowly filtered out by trees in forests, but with the extreme deforestation that has been going on, it has been struggling.
Long Island University (LIU) students shared their thoughts on these harmful gasses and its impact on our earth.
“It’s getting too hot outside. I have never seen 70 degree weather on Halloween,” junior computer science major Zaid Malick said. “Climate change is just something we are not going to solve in our lifetimes.”
Along with trees, another way to get rid of CO2 is for it to be dissolved into the ocean and taken care of by marine plants where it will eventually turn into limestone. However, there have been such high levels of CO2 in the water, it actually makes it very acidic and this is what creates acid rain, which is killing the coral reefs.
LIU students don’t seem very hopeful in being able reverse the damage that has already been done by greenhouse gasses.
“We can’t solve this, at this point we can try keeping the damage controlled,” Malick stated..
When CO2 enters the atmosphere, it traps the heat that the earth radiates out and reflects it back at earth, effectively making it much hotter. This heat is what makes the glaciers melt and raises the sea levels. This heat evaporates more ocean water than normal and creates extreme hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms. This heat is changing weather patterns and climate cycles making seasons start and end at different times and making variable weather patterns. This is why it can be 70 degrees on Halloween, and then be 40 degrees by the next week.
While CO2 is the biggest offender in the atmosphere, there are other gasses that are harming the environment such as nitrogen and methane. When nitrogen enters waterways or soil, it can over enrich the areas, leading to a lot of dead crops and harm to wildlife. Methane has the ability to trap more heat than even CO2can, contributing to the accumulating heat. Then, there are fluorinated gasses in the atmosphere such as hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride. These gasses are man made and are released through industrial processes.
Students continued to share their lack of faith in turning this environmental issue around.
“We can’t beat this, we have to be realistic,” Smyth said. “There is nothing one person can do, maybe groups of people can.”
Greenhouse gasses are continuing to rise at alarming rates. However, not all is hopeless, there are things that can be done. Major buildings, businesses, towns, and cities could switch to renewable energy sources that do not emit toxic greenhouse gasses. However, the switch can be challenging in the beginning causing a lot of places to continue burning fossil fuels. Another thing that can be done is for the world’s most populated countries to partake in the Paris Agreement, which limits the amount of greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere, in hopes of creating a united fight against climate change. While there are many things that should be done and should not be done, there is no more time to waste. Action has to be taken now if there are any hopes of bringing the world back to what it once was.
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