A Race Against Time For Climate Change!
Despite all the technological advancements and new discoveries made by scientists to significantly slow down climate change, there’s one thing that still lacks and that is: time. The most significant factor is unquestionably time, which is also the one resource that technology cannot increase. The issue of climate change is multifaceted.
The accumulation of greenhouse gas pollution in Earth’s atmosphere over time—year by year, decade by decade—is the cause of the current global warming. Not all of 2023’s extreme weather events, such as storms, fires, and record temperatures, were brought on by the year’s emissions. Nor were they brought on by the 2022 ones. They resulted from our long-term, cumulative emissions that accumulated over an extremely long period of time. The latest report indicates that the past month of March in 2024 was the hottest March this far and the tenth month in a row which was the hottest on record.
We have been releasing tens of billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases annually into the atmosphere over the past few decades, which adds up to an incredible quantity of pollution. The atmosphere and climate system have undergone significant changes due to the combined effects of such pollution.
The longer we continue to release greenhouse gases into the sky, the more pollution there is and the more warming of the climate that results. This mechanism essentially fixes higher temperatures on Earth for many years to come. The only way out of this dilemma is to cease pollution as soon as feasible, while also ensuring safety and equity.
Solutions of Today for Climate Change
We must concentrate on the existing solutions. Contrary to popular belief, there are already climate solutions available. Reducing food waste, deforestation, and other harmful activities, electrifying our houses and cars, sealing methane leaks in oil and gas, or moving to zero-carbon energy sources are just a few of the many climate solutions available today. Even better, we ought to pay greater attention to the quickest “emergency break” climate solutions—those that affect the atmosphere right now and contribute to a rapid reduction in emissions.
The most important of these are halting deforestation, which contributes around 11% of world emissions, or more than the US economy as a whole; reducing methane emissions, which affect the climate disproportionately quickly; and minimising waste from food, energy, and industry as quickly as feasible.
These quick fixes for climate change can buy us some time until additional strategies, including the construction of new power plants, transmission lines, energy-efficient structures, and transportation networks, take effect.
The worst thing we can do is hold off in the hopes that a fresh, “better” approach to the issue will eventually be found. If we wait, we will keep spewing pollutants into the sky, which will keep the temperature rising. Action on climate change is hampered by waiting.
Bill Gates reiterated to the globe at the COP28 summit in November that the current technologies will not allow us to address the worst aspects of the climate catastrophe. It isn’t actually true, though. We can just not always afford or use all of these convenient solutions. We have the necessary tools for the most part. Time is something we lack. We shouldn’t wait for new technologies because of this.
Should we wait for technology?
For the last several decades, governments have conducted fusion energy research, but the results have been varied. Even after years of work, billions of dollars, and much-hyped promises, a commercial energy source is still many years off.
The production of nuclear energy is stagnating in most of the world due to protracted delays and cost overruns. Despite decades of repeated promises, better, cheaper, faster, and safer nuclear power facilities have never materialised.
The commercial implementation of the last highly anticipated technology, the Small Modular Reactor, has been clouded by embarrassing delays and setbacks in recent times. Nor should we hold off until industrial carbon capture methods are available.
The effectiveness of such technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere remains remarkably low even after decades of effort and tens of billions of dollars have been spent. Even now, projects are absurdly little, extremely costly, and energy-intensive, using resources that may be better utilised elsewhere. These technologies are unlikely to have a significant impact on the climate for many years, if at all.
Conclusion
It’s obvious to understand that time is more crucial than technology in the fight against climate change. Wishing and waiting for solutions that could never materialise is the precise wrong course of action. Yes, a substantial amount of money, research and knowledge is invested into ensuring that we have the right technology to reduce the impact of climate change and that will not stop, however, neither can our efforts in the meanwhile. As they say, ‘baby steps matter’, we must do the little together in order to bring a gradual yet certain change in the level of damage already done towards the climate and nature.
