It’s a known fact that certain human activities are the primary cause of the severe environment issues happening now-a -days.
Human presence is there in most of the environment hazards like irregular rainfall, increase in temperature, earthquakes etc.
Most of the human activities result in warming the earth.
Increase in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and rising global average sea level are some of the latest observations from research on human activities relation with climate changes.
Even though natural forces play an important role in climate change, most of the human activities can influence the climate around the world.
How do human activities influence global warming? Most importantly human activities, which are responsible for climate change, are listed below
- Energy Usage (Coal, Gas, Oil, Cement and flaring of Natural Gas systems)
- Industrial Development
- Land-use Change
- Vehicular Usage
- Shifting Cultivation practice
- Waste disposal
These human activities results in emissions of Greenhouse Gases, such as
- Carbon Dioxide (CO2),
- Methane (CH4),
- Nitrous Oxide (N2O),
- Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
- Perflurocarbons (PFCs)
- Sulpurhexafluoride (SF6)
According to IPCC, Global Greenhouse Gas emissions due to human activities have grown since pre-industrial times, with an increase of 70% between 1970 and 2004.
A consequence to these Greenhouse Gas emissions, resilience of the ecosystems is largely disturbing and shows the Impacts on Climate Change. Following are the main effects due to increase in green house gases
- Rainfall (Precipitation)
- Mountain Glaciers
- Sea Level Rise
- Health Diseases
- Agriculture Loss
- Coastal Erosion
- Biodiversity Loss
- Storm/Storm Events
- Soil Moisture Availability
- Sea Surface Temperature
According to EDGAR estimate, global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) reached 34.5 billion ton in 2012. As per the reports fast developing countries are most polluted when compared with developed and under developed countries.
India emits less greenhouse gasses per capita in top polluting countries. India’s CO2 emissions per capita estimates 1.6 tones per year compared to US 16.4, China 7.1 Russia 12.4, Japan 10.4.
The top 10 countries in the world emit 67% of the world total. Below graph shows the top polluting countries in the world and their percentage on total world carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and cement manufacture.
References: The article is based on the reports provided by following organisation
- CDIAC (Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center)
- IPCC (Intergovernmental panel on climate change)
- MOSPI, India (Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation)
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