Current affairs play an important part in our lives.
Current affairs main function lies in educating us and making us a more knowledgeable being. It is our knowledge of the current affairs that decides how well we understand the world and our approach towards the same. A person who has a better understanding of the world can deal with the problems in a better manner.
Education is very important in today’s time. However, knowledge of current affairs is not sufficient to survive in today’s world. A large portion of our education is received from the things around us and the environment we live in. This environment includes the world we live in, with its own share of evils and strengths. This world is run by people who are chosen by us. Therefore, it is important for us to know what is happening around us and why is it happening.
How are life is dependent on current affair knowledge is very much evident, especially when we talk about the enviroment and the climate change. Climate change is the greatest threat humankind faces today.
The Facts About Climate Change
CO2 Matters
Atmospheric carbon dioxide is currently at its highest level in 3 million years.Why is this a problem? Warmed by the sun, Earth’s land and ocean surfaces continuously radiate heat. Greenhouse gases like CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide, absorb that heat and release it gradually over time. At normal levels, this greenhouse effect is a necessary, natural process. Without it, the planet would be too cold to support life. However, the rapid increase in CO2 levels has upset the balance, trapping too much heat and causing global temperatures to spike.
Temperature Will Increase
Since 1901, the planet’s surface has warmed by 0.9° C per century, but the rate of warming has nearly doubled since 1975. That may not sound like much, but consider the vast size and tremendous heat capacity of Earth’s oceans. It takes an unimaginable amount of heat energy to raise Earth’s surface temperature even a tiny amount. The planet is gaining heat energy at the rate equivalent to detonating four Hiroshima-sized atom bombs per second.
Wildlife Will Be Affected
Wildlife will see a huge impact from the rising heat. Climate change has already put much of the natural world at risk, and in the coming years, it will threaten entire ecosystems. The most noticeable example of this is in the polar regions. Temperatures there are rising twice as fast as other places on the planet. The oceans are heating up, and glacial ice is melting, causing habitat loss and threatening food supplies. The climate change in the Arctic and Antarctic may be the most extreme example right now, but it only serves as an early warning system for the changes to come for the rest of the planet. This topic about current affair is very dear to environmentalists from all over the World.
Droughts and Floods Will Become More Common
The heating of the Earth has lead to an increase in extreme weather. Higher temperatures mean heatwaves and droughts, but it doesn’t stop there. Warmer air can hold more water vapor, meaning that the regions free from drought will actually see much more rain, snow, sleet, and hail. Warmer air also holds more energy, which means stronger winds and more devastating storms. This isn’t some current affairs issue that we’ll have to worry about decades from now. It’s happening right here, right now.
Here are some common myths you may hear about climate change
More CO2 Is Good for Plants
A favorite myth of climate change deniers is that more atmospheric carbon dioxide is good for plants. Like all great oversimplifications, this one sounds like it should make sense at first. After all, plants breathe CO2, so more should be better for growing, right? Unfortunately, the reality is a little more complicated than that. Plants need carbon dioxide to live, but they also need water, and droughts are becoming more common and more severe. Recent studies show that the increased CO2 in the atmosphere is actually harming plant life.
It Cannot Be Attributed to Human Activity
Skeptics may claim that climate change is a natural process, not the result of human activity. At first glance, it seems like an alluring possibility. It’s convenient for some to believe that human activity is not affecting our climate because that would mean that we don’t have to change our behavior. However, upon further examination, it becomes clear that human-created greenhouse gasses are indeed the culprit.
Clean Energy Is Too Expensive or Unreliable
The energy industry is the most significant contributor to greenhouse gasses. Since we can’t just shut off all the electricity on earth, adopting clean, renewable energy sources like solar, wind, and hydroelectric is critical to our survival and advancement as a species. Some critics will say that green energy sources are too expensive or unreliable, but this simply is not true. We’ve made huge advances in clean energy technology, and its cheaper and more reliable than ever before.