Abstract
Nature has the self-curing capability of any external intervention for the survival of habitat on the planet. The stability of global temperature, the salinity of the ocean, maintenance of oxygen level in the atmosphere, and maintenance of hydrosphere of liquid water and other environmental variables that affect the habitability on Earth are regulated and controlled by nature since the time the planet was born. But this self-regulating capability is not beyond a limit. Human intervention through industrialization and deforestation has caused an imbalance in both ecology and the environment that makes survival difficult. Global warming is one of the major threats to the survival of humankind arising due to this imbalance. Though the progress and prosperity of humankind cannot be achieved without industrial development and energy utilization, we have to strike a balance with survival.
Today, more than 80% of the world’s energy comes from fossil fuels, which are the main source of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. This has exponentially risen after the 1970s owing to rapid industrialization. A small temperature rise has an enormous effect on the environment. It is reported that in a 3C world, that is, when the global temperature will rise to 3° C, the swath of Osaka will submerge into the water and at the present sea rise rate, 275 million of the human population residing in coastal areas will submerge in water by the year 2100.
Though a lot has been done worldwide to mitigate this threat through the Paris Convention of Climate Change, encouragement and implementation of gas-based (green fuel) economy, shifting from fossil fuels to renewables, and improving technology to enhance burning efficiency to reduce CO2 emission, a lot more needs to be done to check the menace.
The article focuses on these aspects of global warming, climate change, and challenges for human survival on this planet arising due to industrialization and deforestation.
Contents
of Vol.19(1) March 2020 