TUESDAY, MAY 14, 2024
Elvidio Miranda
The amount of heat in the atmosphere due to gaseous emissions in the form of carbon dioxide in particular, along with carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides as also methane, are a consequence of the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum coke, petrol, diesel, aviation turbine fuel and natural gas leading to conduction and retention of heat from the sun that is the chief cause of global warming and subsequent climate change.
To understand the dynamics that control weather patterns and thus the seasons such as summer, winter, spring, autumn and monsoons as well as snowing, it would be argued that the amount of heat in the atmosphere is leading to curtailment of certain seasons that used to be cooler and the lengthening of seasons that are hotter that used to be shorter because the total quantum of heat in the atmosphere as well as on the crust of the earth has increased.
Thus the entire heating-cooling of the earth is now tending to lead to greater length of hot spells such as heatwaves and consequent drought and wildfires which are being supported by the global warming. Snowing has consequently reduced greatly even in the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
Another important aspect is the constant and asymmetrical changes in atmospheric pressures at various regions due to differences in temperatures which is causing violent climatic conditions such as cyclones, hurricanes, tornadoes, typhoons which are the direct consequence of anomalous pressure changes in the atmosphere and especially at points which are coastal and where the seas and the oceans meet land masses. Could this argument be tenable? These violent storms lead to battering of coasts in those countries which are close to the seas and the oceans. So, if you greatly reduce the emitted gases that trap the heat of the sun in the atmosphere, logically there will be a reverting back to the pre-industrial seasons cycles that could largely ameliorate entire weather patterns globally.
Also, natural cycles of seed planting to fruit bearing could be affected by the higher temperatures thus leading to reduced yield of grains, vegetables, fruits, by the plants that bear them in order to adapt to the higher temperatures which otherwise would flower and bear fruit earlier. This anomaly in the life cycles of plants would be attributed to higher temperatures. Also heating of the earth means that hotter regions are susceptible to drought, cooler regions are becoming hotter and cold regions no longer receive snow like they used to. A consequence of the quantum of heat globally being higher due to global warming. Weather changes are also leading to displacement of types of crops as the heat does not sustain their growth like they used to earlier.
In the light of such drastic influences of higher heat regimes around the world, it would become automatically evident that precipitate action has to be taken in order to stop heating by phasing out of coal fired power plants as well as reduction in petroleum products being used in vehicles around the world by utilizing renewable energies like solar power or wind turbine power as also electric cars to reverse the heating of the earth and achieve normal weather patterns that can importantly sustain much healthier lives as also previously experienced salubrious climes around the earth.
