The burning of fossil fuels for energy is
not solely to blame for the rise in Earth’s
temperature. According to the
article “University of Saskatchewan Studies
‘Burping’ Beef Cattle to Study
Methane Emissions,” written by Brittney Matejka
and published by Global News
in 2019, beef cattle are
also emitting greenhouse gasses into the
atmosphere. In this article, Matejka
writes about how different grazing forage systems
effect methane and CO2 produced
in beef cattle. When beef cattle digest grass,
methane and CO2 are
produced in their stomachs and then released into
the atmosphere when they burp
(Matejka). This may seem quite trivial, but
considering the number of beef
cattle raised and slaughtered each year in the US
alone, the amount of
greenhouse gasses being emitted by these cattle is
significantly high. According
to Matejka, there are certain dietary supplements
that can be fed to these
cattle to reduce their carbon footprint.
Humans cannot simply stop greenhouse gas
emissions all at once, although this would be
ideal. In an article published in The
Conversation, written by Richard
Rood in 2014, titled “What Would Happen to the
Climate if We Stopped Emitting
Greenhouse Gases Today?”,
he
writes about what would happen if humans were able
to stop their CO2 emissions
all together. Even if humans were to put an end to
their carbon emissions
today, it would take thousands of years for the
carbon dioxide already released
into Earth’s atmosphere to dissipate (Rood). This
is alarming, considering that
humanity is nowhere near being able to put an end
to these emissions in a
timely manner.
There are many things humanity can do to
combat the effects of climate change, however.
Alternative renewable energy is
a great place to start. Noah Long and Kevin
Steinberger write about some of the
ways we can use renewable energy to fight global
warming in their article “Renewable
Energy Is Key to Fighting Climate Change,”
published in NRDC in 2016. According to their
article, wind and solar energy
have experienced significant growth in recent
years. There has also been a
decline in the cost of generating electricity via
these methods. This decline
in cost is projected to continue its downward
trend, making renewable energy an
even more viable alternative to fossil fuels (Long
and Steinberger).
Another way to combat climate change and
clean up the atmosphere is to plant more trees. In
his article titled “Restoring
Forests May Be One of Our Most Powerful Weapons in
Fighting Climate Change,”
published in 2019 by Vox,
Irfan Umair
discusses how planting trees across the globe
could counteract the effects of
global warming. Umair writes that according to a
recent study, planting just
2.2 billion acres of new trees would allow them to
capture “two-thirds of
man-made carbon emissions”. If humans were to let
these saplings re-grow in the
locations where old forests have been cleared, it
is estimated that 205 billion
metric tons of CO2 could be removed from the
atmosphere in a matter of time (Umair). |
|
|
